The White House has criticised China after it imposed retaliatory tariffs against the US on a range of goods, including pork and wine.<\/p>\n
Beijing has introduced duties of up to 25% on 128 American imports following President Donald Trump’s decision to slap tariffs on steel and aluminium.<\/p>\n
China said the move was intended to safeguard its interests and balance losses caused by the new tariffs.<\/p>\n
US stocks fell sharply\u00a0and Asian shares traded lower as trade war fears mount.<\/p>\n
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 Index lost 2.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.9%.<\/p>\n
In Asia,\u00a0Japan’s Nikkei 225\u00a0opened down about 1.5% on Tuesday but recovered a little to close 0.45% lower. The Shanghai Composite was off 1% and the Hang Seng down by 0.6% in afternoon trading.<\/p>\n
The White House reacted angrily to China’s move.<\/p>\n
“Instead of targeting fairly traded US exports, China needs to stop its unfair trading practices which are harming US national security and distorting global markets,” spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said.<\/p>\n
She added; “China’s subsidisation and continued overcapacity is the root cause of the steel crises,”<\/p>\n
The back-and-forth reflects rising tensions between the US and China, which President Trump has described as an “economic enemy”.<\/p>\n
What is this fight about?<\/strong><\/p>\n The US has taken two major steps on tariffs recently that have triggered tension with China, the first on steel and aluminium and the second on intellectual property.<\/p>\n The global steel and aluminium tariffs were announced on 8 March. The US is using national security laws to impose the tariffs, which it says are needed to protect US producers.<\/p>\n Certain allies such as Canada, Mexico and the European Union are in line for exemptions, pending talks.<\/p>\n China\u00a0has challenged the US use of national security laws\u00a0and announced retaliatory tariffs on $3bn (\u00a32.1bn) worth of US products.<\/p>\n Those tariffs went into effect on Monday, targeting US goods including frozen pork, nuts, fresh and dried fruit, ginseng and wine.<\/p>\n The US tariffs related to intellectual property are expected to be set out this week.<\/p>\n They stem from a US investigation into the alleged theft of intellectual property and Beijing’s “Made in China 2025” programme, which the US says puts its firms at a disadvantage and unfairly pressures them to share technology, especially in fields such as robotics and telecommunications.<\/p>\n Up to $60bn in tariffs could be imposed on Chinese imports.<\/p>\n China’s ambassador to the US, Cui Tiankai, warned Beijing would take counter-measures of “the same proportion”.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The White House has criticised China after it imposed retaliatory tariffs against the US on a range of goods, including pork and wine. Beijing has introduced duties of up to 25% on 128 American imports following President Donald Trump’s decision to slap tariffs on steel and aluminium. China said the move was intended to safeguard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":415205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n