China said on Friday that it will take “immediate” tariff measures of “equal scale and strength” in response to the decision of the US government to impose tariffs on about $50 billion of Chinese goods.
The Ministry of Commerce also reiterated that all economic and trade outcomes of previous talks will not take effect.
Analysts said the US move is a challenge to the World Trade Organization framework, and the United States is playing a panic stratagem with its trade partners.
The Commerce Ministry made the comments after the White House issued a statement on Friday saying it will “implement a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion of goods from China that contain industrially significant technologies”.
The White House accused China of creating an “unfair” trade relationship with the US “for a long time”, referring to US trade deficits with China. But economists generally hold that the deficits are primarily a result of global division of labor and the industrial policies of the US in the past decades.
The White House said in the statement that it will pursue additional tariffs if China takes retaliatory measures.
The Commerce Ministry said it regretted that the US had been changeable and inconsistent, which damaged the global trade order and bilateral trade interests, according to a Xinhua News Agency report.
China will resolutely fight back to safeguard its national interest and the interest of its people, the ministry said.
Wei Jianguo, former vice-minister of commerce, told China Daily that it is the latest US attempt to challenge the WTO’s authority and would have a severe impact on Sino-US trade relations in the long term.
He called for joint efforts by China and other countries to tackle the US challenge.
“It is time for China to accelerate the pace to work with other economies, such as the European Union and Canada, to confront inconstant trade policies adopted by the Trump administration.”
Zhou Shijian, an economics professor at Tsinghua University, said the US trade move is not only targeted at China, but also is a panic stratagem to pressure its trade partners to bow to its demands.
“The US government’s trade policy has disrupted global economic and trade orders and caused a lot of criticism,” he said, pointing out that the US has not only launched a trade investigation of China, but also launched an investigation into US imports of steel and aluminum products from other major trade partners.
For example, Washington recently claimed that it may impose a 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles. “The essential reason for taking those moves is to increase panic sentiment in all targeted countries, including China, Germany and France, to bring more benefits to its own industries,” Zhou said.
