China promises to retaliate.
Begun, the trade war has.
The Trump administration’s 25 percent tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods—hitting everything from industrial machinery to consumer goods such as televisions—went into effect Friday morning, prompting threats of an immediate response from the Chinese government, which also promised to haul the United States in front of the World Trade Organization.
“In order to defend the core interests of the country and the interests of the people, we are forced to retaliate,” the Chinese Commerce Ministry said in a statement shortly after the tariffs took effect.
Trump has promised another round of tariffs on $16 billion of additional Chinese goods if China follows through with its threat to retaliate. China did not specify what items would be targeted with retaliatory tariffs, but it has previously threatened to hit American agricultural products such as pork and soy beans. America is the world’s largest exporter of soy beans, and China is the world’s largest consumer of them.
A ship loaded with soy beans was racing the clock this week to reach China before any retaliatory tariffs could be imposed.
