The US-China trade war escalated on Monday after both sides announced new tariffs on each other’s goods — the biggest so far. Amid rising tensions between the two powerhouses, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo believes the U.S. will eventually win the US-China trade war.
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Fresh round of tariffs
On Monday, the Trump administration announced new 10% tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods. The new tariffs cover products like food seasonings, baseball gloves, network routers and industrial machinery parts.
In response, China announced new tariffs ranging from 5% to 10% on $60 billion in U.S. goods, including meat, chemicals, clothes and auto parts. Specifically, China imposed an extra 5% tax on U.S. products like smaller aircraft, computers, and textiles and an additional 10% duty on chemicals, meat, wheat, wine and other products.
After this latest round in the US-China trade war, U.S. tariffs now cover more than $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, or about half of the nation’s exports to the U.S. The latest round of tariffs also covers products that are often bought by Americans, like furniture and electronics. The U.S. tariffs imposed earlier this year covered mainly industrial goods.
Playing the blame game
The Trump administration has long been accusing China of unfair trade practices, including intellectual property theft. With the tariffs, Trump aims to end “unfair transfers of American technology and intellectual property to China” and protect jobs.
In theory, the tariffs are supposed to make U.S.-made products cheaper than goods imported from China. However, many U.S. companies and trade groups have been saying that their businesses are being harmed by the US-China trade war.
Beijing rejects the claims made by the U.S. and is accusing Washington of using “trade bullyism practices.” In an official white paper, China also claimed that the U.S. intends to “impose its own interests on China through extreme pressure.” China even accused the U.S. of starting the “largest trade war in economic history” by “intimidating other countries through economic measures,” hurting the global economy as well in the process.
