U.S. – China tariff war ramps up this week

Relations between China and the U.S. continue to worsen, with a new round of tariffs on each other’s goods kicking off this Monday.

“We don’t want to, but we probably will have no choice,” U.S. President Donald Trump said of the tariff escalation at the Oval Office last week, reported ‘Bloomberg News’. “We’re making a lot of headway with China,” added Trump.

As of 12 a.m. Washington time on Monday September, 24,200 billion dollars of Chinese products will be subject to tariffs, as reported by the ‘Business Mirror’. These are to be added to the 50 billion in goods already affected by tariffs earlier this year.

The combined 250 billion dollars in products facing levies is almost half the value of imports from China last year, according to Bloomberg’s calculations.

In the meantime, 110 billion dollars of U.S. goods from the U.S. will become subject to Chinese tariffs in the coming days. In other words, circa 70 percent of the value of goods imported from the U.S. into China in 2017.

Last Saturday China called off trade talks with US officials that had been planned for next week amid the tariff threats.

“Retailers are already facing a tidal wave of tariffs. This latest tranche is a tsunami,” said Hun Quach, vice president of international trade for the Retail Industry Leaders Association, a trade group based in Arlington, Virginia. “With thousands of consumer products included, little warning, and no time to prepare, businesses are left scrambling.”

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told CNBC on September, 18 that it was up to the Chinese whether or when the two sides will meet, and that the end goal was not to have tariffs in place but for China to “resolve fundamental issues.” “It’s a little disappointing that the earlier tariffs haven’t resulted in more constructive dialogue, but we hope these will,” Ross said.