China has imposed a 25pc import tariff on many oil, coal and metals products from the US as the trade war between the countries continues to escalate.
The move came immediately after the US government imposed its own tariffs on imports of some chemical and industrial goods from the China at just after 12am Eastern Standard Time (12pm Beijing time) today. Each set of tariffs covers $16bn/yr of bilateral imports, adding to the $34bn/yr of goods targeted in the first tranche of tariffs that took effect in July.
China will retaliate against the latest US tariffs, including by filing a suit with the World Trade Organisation, the commerce ministry said.
The Chinese tariffs apply to a range of energy and commodity products, although growing exports of US crude to China were exempted by Beijing earlier this month.
The rise in import costs is poised to further disrupt trade flows of thermal and coking coal, LPG, scrap metal and some petrochemicals. But China imports only limited amounts from the US of many of the oil products covered by the latest tariffs.
The tariff implementation came despite the scheduled meeting of US and Chinese trade officials in Washington this week, in the first formal trade talks for several months. But the negotiations are at a much lower level than the failed talks earlier this year.
The US government is holding hearings this week on a proposal to apply tariffs to another $200bn/yr of imports from China. Beijing has promised to respond by applying its own tariffs to $60bn/yr of goods from the US, including LNG.
