China announced Friday it will hit US soybeans, lobsters, peanut butter and other imports worth $75 billion with new tariffs in retaliation for Washington’s planned duty hikes, further intensifying the bruising trade war between the world’s top two economies.
The escalating trade war is adding to growing fears of a possible recession in the US, with the tariffs weighing on global trade and both countries’ growth. “China’s adoption of punitive tariff measures is forced under the pressure of US unilateralism and trade protectionism,” the office said. An alarm bell went off in the US Treasury bond market last week when 10-year bond yields briefly fell below the yields offered on a two-year bond — the inverse of what normally happens.