Beijing retaliated against Donald Trump’s prices on imports from China with his own rights, but has limited their scope in a possible attempt to avoid a full -fledged trade war.
Measures against American products ranging from natural gas liquefied to cars will take effect on February 10. They were announced on Tuesday, a few hours after the US president’s new additional rate on Chinese products.
Beijing also said that he would launch a Antitrust probe on Googlewhose search engine is blocked in China.
New Beijing prices target approximately $ 14 billion in Citigroup analysts – less than 10% of total imports from the United States in 2023, last year for which there was complete data.
This decision was “not a climbing response,” said Chris Beddor, deputy research director in China at Givekal. “They clearly aim for negotiations and an agreement.”
Trump on Friday, annoyed allies and investors by announcing samples in Canada, Mexico and China, that he has accused of not slowing down immigration and the flow of fatal fiois opioid in the United States.
Beijing took certain measures to stem the flow of fentanyl ingredients – known as pioneering chemicals – since former president Joe Biden and chief of China Xi Jinping held a summit in San Francisco at the end of 2023. The Trump administration said that the Asian country Chinese, businesses that make precursors.
Trump has kept his campaign commitment to impose prices of 60% on Chinese exports to the United States. People familiar with the situation said he wanted to conclude an agreement with Beijing, therefore chose to initially hit China with a lower rate rate.
THE commercial relationship Between the United States and China has shaped the savings of the two countries in recent decades. But Beijing’s share of total imports from the United States has dropped since Trump introduced prices during his first mandate.
The latest measures of China against the United States will impose prices between 10% and 15% on American LNG, coal, crude oil and agricultural equipment. Beijing will also impose prices Some car imports United States and additional export controls on five rare metals.
Trump should speak to Xi in the coming days, which encourages the two leaders will be able to conclude a agreement to avoid a full -fledged trade war between the two biggest economies in the world.
In response to Chinese reprisals, the spokesperson for the National Security Council of the White House, Brian Hughes, said: “President Trump is committed to saving American lives using his authority to end the fentanyl flow On our southern and north borders from China. It is a question of prioritizing the security and national security of the Americans. »»
The Hong Kong Hang Seng index, which had increased up to 3.3% at the start of negotiations, lose some of his earnings To close 2.7%, while the offshore renminbi strengthened slightly at RMB7.32 and oil prices fell by around 1%.
Beijing’s initial reprisals were a “more symbolic decision,” said Oxford Economics analysts, adding that the decision was equivalent to an increase in the overall weighted rate of 2 percentage points on American imports.
The Beijing Antitrust regulator announced on Tuesday the investigation into Google for alleged violations of anti-monopoly laws. While the search engine is blocked in China – as well as most companies in the parent company Alphabet – the American group takes advantage of Chinese companies announcing abroad.
Chinese phonémakers also largely use its Android operating system, a longtime frustration point for the country officials, who have struck the American control of the software that underlies most smartphones.
During the first Trump administration, Washington blocked Huawei from Google’s software ecosystem, damaging sales of the Chinese national champion’s smartphone outside its domestic market.
Referring to the movements of Washington and Beijing this week, Louise Loo, economist in China at Oxford Economics, wrote in a note that “Clearly trade war [is] In the early stages ”.
Trump put his prices against Canada and Mexico Waiting for a month After last -minute discussions on Monday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
The Chinese Finance Ministry said that the American prices Stole the rules of the World Trade Organization. “It is not only useless to solve your own problems, but also undermines normal economic and commercial cooperation between China and the United States,” he said, announcing new prices.
The ministry said that American coal and LNG exports would face an additional 15%rate, while crude oil, agricultural machinery, cars and vans would receive a tariff of 10%.
China was the second buyer of American coal in the first three quarters of 2024, representing 10.9% of total coal exports and only drags India, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration.
The country represented 2.9% of American natural gas exports from January to November 2024, according to EIA figures.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce also announced Tungsten export controls on Tuesday and more than two dozen other rare metal products and technologies, with immediate effect.
Goldman Sachs analysts described China as a “dominant producer” of metals subjected to controls, adding “critical minerals [were] An increasingly important lever ”.
The bank noted that Beijing blocked the exports of several other key minerals in December – a decision that struck the American semiconductor industry.
China on Tuesday also widened its “unreliable entities list”, a black national security list, adding an American biotechnology group Illumina and PVH Group, an American clothing manufacturer whose brands include Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger.
The ministry had previously investigated PVH for alleged discrimination against the cotton of the
Additional Zijing Wu reports in Hong Kong
