Beijing on Tuesday reiterated its firm opposition to Donald Trump’s bid to impose an additional 10 per cent tariff on Chinese imports over the fentanyl row and vowed to take countermeasures.
A spokesperson for the Chinese ministry of commerce accused the US of disregarding facts and international trade rules, calling it a typical example of “unilateralism and bullying”.
The additional 10 per cent tariff took effect on Tuesday, raising the total levies on select Chinese goods to 45 per cent, according to The Washington Post.
In a statement published on its website, the ministry urged Washington to “respect the rights and interests of other countries” and “immediately withdraw the groundless and self-defeating unilateral tariff measures”.
The ministry hoped “that the US will view and handle trade issues in an objective and rational manner and return to the correct path of resolving differences through good faith dialogue at the earliest possible time”.
Beijing was formulating relevant countermeasures to the barrage on tariffs on Chinese products, state media Global Times reported on Monday.
The countermeasures would likely include tariffs and a series of non-tariff measures, targeting US agricultural and food products, the report said. China accounted for 17 per cent of American agricultural exports in 2023, according to the US department of agriculture.
Last month, Mr Trump claimed that “drugs are still pouring into our country from Mexico and Canada at very high and unacceptable levels”. He also claimed that a “large percentage” of these deadly substances were made in China.
China reiterated that it had one of the world’s toughest counternarcotics policies and implementation mechanisms. “However, the US is shifting blame and doubling down on its mistakes by once again imposing tariffs on Chinese exports to the US under the pretext of the fentanyl issue,” it said.
On Tuesday, stock markets slumped and bond yields slid in Asia as investors braced for an imminent escalation in a global trade war with the new American tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico.
Mr Trump said 25 per cent tariffs on Canada and Mexico would go into effect on Tuesday, prompting Canada to vow retaliation. Both the Canadian dollar and Mexican peso tumbled, although China’s yuan bounced off its lowest level since 13 February in offshore trading.
Asian equities tracked the biggest losses on Wall Street this year from overnight, with the S&P 500 sliding 1.8 per cent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropping 2.6 per cent.
Crude oil wallowed near 12-week lows and bitcoin languished around $86,000 after erasing the surge to the cusp of $95,000 that started the week.
Tech stocks suffered particular selling pressure, pushing Japan’s Nikkei down 2.2 per cent and Taiwan’s benchmark index down 1.3 per cent.
