Asian stocks went into a tailspin yesterday as United States President Donald Trump threatened to hike tariffs on Chinese imports.
The surprise re-escalation in trade tensions comes days ahead of a Beijing trade delegation's arrival in Washington for trade talks. Markets across Asia reacted in dismay, with Shanghai sinking 5.6 per cent and Shenzhen tumbling 7.4 per cent yesterday.This comes after stock markets in Asia and the US had been rallying in recent months on trade optimism.
The threatened tariffs - which will see the current 10 per cent tariff on US$200 billion worth of Chinese goods go up to 25 per cent on Friday - would cover almost all Chinese exports to the US.