Steep American tariffs on Chinese goods worth tens of billions of dollars are due to take effect at midnight Thursday, as U. S. President Donald Trump fires
WASHINGTON – Steep American tariffs on Chinese goods worth tens of billions of dollars are due to take effect at midnight Thursday, as U. S. President Donald Trump fires the first salvo in a trade war between the world’s top two economies.
Beijing has vowed to retaliate dollar-for-dollar, “immediately” imposing countertariffs on American exports in tit-for-tat measures, with experts warning the burgeoning conflict will send shock waves around the global economy and strike at the heart of the world trading system.
In a fresh sign of industry’s unease, a business survey on Thursday again showed the U. S. services sector was already experiencing supply chain interruptions and rising costs in anticipation of heightened trade restrictions.
“We’re starting to see signs of inflation, not sharp inflation, but definitely inflation,” Anthony Nieves, head of a services industry survey committee for the Institute for Supply Management, told reporters.
White House trade officials say the current strength of the U. S. economy means Washington can withstand more pain than its rivals if the battle escalates further.
But economists also say the trade war comes as the period of synchronized expansion among the world’s largest economies, which is bolstering demand for U. S. goods and services, may be starting to run out of steam, raising the risks that tariffs could harm growth.
But the Trump team has paid little heed to such warnings, with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross this week slamming them as “premature and probably quite inaccurate.”
The U. S. will levy a 25 percent tariff on more than 800 Chinese product categories worth around $34 billion and has warned of more to come if China retaliates.
Trump has threatened to progressively ratchet up U. S. penalties to a total of $450 billion in goods — which would represent the lion’s share of all of China’s exports to the United States.
