🗞 Trade dispute: Trump charges China with billions in punitive tariffs

The trade dispute of the US with China escalates: US president Trump announced $60 billion in fines. The EU will be spared by tariffs for now.

The US will put billion-dollar fines on imports from China. President Donald Trump signed a decree to introduce tariffs worth up to $60 billion dollars. The deatails of the tariffs and affected products will be worked out by Trump's trade Representative Robert Lighthizer within 60 days.

The reason for to the punitive measures are allegations of unfair trading practices and theft of intellectual property from the US. According to Trump China is stealing intellectual property hence the trade deficit with them is incredible. Nevertheless countermeasures have been announced by China. They are preparing actions on their own against the planned tariffs, but they still hope for a dialogue. China Daily, the newspaper of the communist party, asked all nations to oppose the US. China also considers a lawsuit at the WTO against the US. A spokeswoman of the Beijing Foreign Ministry said: "China will not just sit back and ignore its legitimate rights and interests."

For some reason the EU is temporarily exempted from the planned tariffs on steel and aluminum. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told that at a congressional hearing and claims that President Trump made an appropriate decision.
Besides the EU, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, New Zealand and South Korea will be spared from punitive measures as well as US neighbors Mexico and Canada.

China probably wants to impose tariffs on US agricultural products such as soybeans which would mainly affect farmers, one of the biggest group of Trump supporters. They could also target US aircraft manufacturer Boeing and order more from its main competitor Airbus.

Source: dpa, Reuters, China Daily
Image: pixabay

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