Trade Wars: China Hits Back at Trump, Imposes Tariffs on US Goods

What has been announced so far from Beijing?

Well, as you said,
that antitrust investigation into Google,

as well as a series of tariffs, 10 to 15% on American agricultural machines,

as well as oil, coal, LNG,

a couple of American companies
added to this unreliable entity list

and also export control on tungsten

related materials, materials used for solar panels, semiconductors,

very precise and very targeted measures,
although not extensive.

But it shows that China is not going to
back down without a fight.

Some analysts had expected that
maybe China will not retaliate so quickly.

And clearly this is a very
highly choreographed move given that

China had waited exactly until after the tariffs kicked in at 1:01 p.m. local Beijing time

before announcing these series of coordinated measures.

And this comes as Trump had said

he plans to speak with presidency within 24 hours.

That was several hours ago.

And he said that if no deal is reached,

that the tariffs could be, quote, very,
very substantial.

So 10% is just a starting point.

It could go up or go down from there
depending on how negotiations go.

China and Beijing clearly had a ready to
bake response, didn't they?

Quick, quick, swift and targeted, as you
say, oven ready response from Beijing.

Where do we stand then on those talks
between China and the US?

Well, there's really an infinite number
of ways that negotiations could go.

And one thing that China could do is maybe to return to that starting point of the first trade deal

that was struck with President Trump
in his first term in office,

committing to buy maybe a certain number of a certain amount of American products

in exchange for other things that they want,
for instance,

more market access into the US or
perhaps being able to buy what they want to buy,

including advanced semiconductors, for example.

President Trump had said the reason for
imposing these tariffs include fentanyl.

China producing the ingredients for that.

And this is perhaps an off ramp
that could be offered to China

because that is a low hanging fruit,

is something that Beijing could very easily clamp down on if it so chooses to.

This is also something that
both countries have already began working on.

So that's one possible thing.

But again, you know, many of these measures,

they're not that easy to undo.

Once you're on an entity list,
it's not that easy to get off it.

So it remains to be seen how those negotiations will go.

And, you know, it's really a trade war
that could escalate further.

And we have to see what happens
in the next few days.