China to retaliate after Trump fires first salvo in trade war – POLITICO Europe
Beijing says it will impose countermeasures against the U.S.’s 10 percent levy on Chinese imports. Beijing on Sunday announced plans for retaliatory measures after the United States slapped 10 percent tariffs on Chinese imports. China’s ministry of commerce said in a statement that the Chinese government would file a complaint with the World Trade Organization and take unspecified “corresponding countermeasures to firmly safeguard its own rights and interests.” U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday announced 10 percent tariffs on Chinese goods — as well as 25 percent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico — and has threatened to impose similar measures against the European Union. Canada and Mexico immediately vowed retaliatory measures. Trump has linked the levies to irregular immigration and cross-border flows of the opioid fentanyl, which has driven a surge in overdose deaths in the U.S. Beijing pushed back, saying: “China hopes that the U.S. side will objectively and rationally look at and deal with its own fentanyl issue and other issues, rather than threatening other countries by means of tariffs at every turn.” China’s statement is far less specific than the immediate responses from Mexico and Canada, whose leaders ordered countermeasures on Saturday. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Ottawa would impose 25 percent tariffs on goods worth roughly $21 billion starting Tuesday and more later this month. Germany, which is in the firing line of Trump’s tariff threats against Europe, was trying to be nonconfrontational following the moves against other U.S. trading partners.”We should not react to the first decisions in a panic, but rather see them as the beginning of the negotiations and not the end,” German Finance Minister Jörg Kukies said on Sunday during a trip to the Gulf region, Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper reported.Meanwhile, Japan on Sunday expressed fears about the consequences of Trump’s tariffs for the global economy. Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato told Japanese television that “we’re deeply concerned about how these tariffs could affect the world’s economy … Japan needs to scrutinize these policies and their effects, and take appropriate measures.” European Commission says the bloc “regrets” new U.S. tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China. The meeting will be Trump’s first with a foreign leader since his return to the presidency. Jordan Bardella thinks he can convince the European People’s Party to suspend EU climate legislation. A draft document shows Brussels putting deregulation before decarbonization.
