China vows unspecified measures to counter US tariffs, threatens WTO action

By Bloomberg News

 

The Chinese government vowed to take unspecified “corresponding countermeasures” against the US, after President Donald Trump announced a 10 per cent tariff on imports from the world’s No. 2 economy.  

China “firmly opposes” the levy and will file proceedings to the World Trade Organization, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on Sunday. The US action is a serious violation of WTO rules and will damage China-US trade cooperations, it added.

 

Trump unleashed the first salvo of his tariff war on Saturday in the US, imposing general levies of 25 per cent on Canada and Mexico as well as the lower rate on China. Those actions were seen as the start of a wave of promised trade barrages against foreign allies and adversaries.

 

“The practice of imposing tariffs is not constructive and will inevitably affect and undermine the future cooperation between the two sides on drug control,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in a separate statement also released Sunday. 

 

Neither statement from the Chinese ministries offered specific details on any counter measures, or directly threatened retaliatory tariffs. 

 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada will respond by placing 25 per cent counter-tariffs on C$155 billion ($107 billion) worth of American-made products, while Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said she instructed the economy minister to kick off a response plan that includes retaliatory tariffs against the levies.