BEIJING/WASHINGTON: China on Friday vowed to fight back against US President Donald Trump's abrupt decision to slap 10 per cent tariffs on the remaining US$300 billion in Chinese imports, a move that ended a month-long trade truce.
The US president stunned financial markets on Thursday by saying he plans to levy the additional duties starting Sep 1, marking a sudden end to a truce in a year-long trade war between the world's two biggest economies that has slowed global growth and disrupted supply chains.US stocks extended their sell-off Friday on Trump's tariff announcement. Yields on US and German debt plumbed multi-year lows amid a rush for safe-haven assets.
Trump also threatened to further raise tariffs if Chinese President Xi Jinping fails to move more quickly to strike a trade deal. So far, Beijing has refrained from slapping tariffs on US crude oil and big aircraft, after cumulatively imposing additional retaliatory tariffs of up to 25 per cent on about US$110 billion of US goods since the trade war broke out last year.