SHANGHAI: China has announced on Friday that it would impose additional 25 per cent tariffs on 659 U.S. goods as a response to the U.S. recent tariff impositions.
China will first impose tariffs on 545 U.S. goods worth $34 billion on July 6. Affected products include beef, pork, poultry, fish and seafood, dairy products, vegetables, mushrooms, fruits, nuts, sorghum, other grains, soybeans, whiskey, orange juice, tobacco, and conventional, hybrid and electric passenger vehicles.
The country has not yet announced an effective date for tariffs on the remaining 114 goods worth $16 billion, which include crude oil, natural gas, coal, some refined oil products and medical equipment. The total amount will remain unchanged, at $50 billion.
Trump had laid out a list of more than 800 strategically important imports from China that would be subject to a 25 per cent tariff starting on July 6, including cars, the latest hardline stance on trade by a U.S. president who has already been wrangling with allies.
"The wise man builds bridges, the fool builds walls," the official Xinhua news agency said in an editorial, echoing official comments that China would defend its interests in a trade war.
"Following the path of expanding and opening up is China's best response to the trade dispute between China and the United States, and is also the responsibility that major countries should have to the world," it added.
An editorial in the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily condemned what it called the Trump administration's "obsession with playing the disgraceful role of global economic disruptor".
It added, "There is no winner in a trade war, and the U.S. instigation of a trade war is extremely destructive to global trade, economic globalisation, multilateral trade systems and global production supply chains.
The Global Times, a tabloid run by the People's Daily, called the U.S. move "an irresponsible act on behalf of the White House to disrupt international trade just to appeal to American voters who are convinced their president is fighting for them."
In an editorial, the official English-language China Daily said the measure was "a stark violation of the core spirit of recent trade talks between China and the United States and is set to backfire if Washington doesn't back off from its dangerous adventurism."
"Given the frequent flip-flopping of the Donald Trump administration, it is still too early to conclude that a trade war will start," the editorial said, adding that China's stance had been consistent.
The reaction to the U.S. tariffs was muted on Chinese social media, failing to break into the top 100 trending topics on the country's Twitter-like 'Weibo'.