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.
Yeah.

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.