BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China accused the United States on Tuesday of “extreme pressure and blackmailing” and vowed to retaliate after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 10 percent tariff on $200 billion of Chinese goods in an escalation of the trade conflict between the world’s two biggest economies.
Trump’s move on Monday, as Washington fights trade battles on several fronts, was unexpectedly swift and sharp, hitting stock China’s stock market hard as well as pushing Wall Street lower at the start of trade on Tuesday.
It was retaliation, Trump said, for China’s decision to raise tariffs on $50 billion in U.S. goods, which came after Trump announced similar tariffs on Chinese goods on Friday.
China’s commerce ministry said Beijing will fight back with “qualitative” and “quantitative” measures if the United States publishes an additional list of tariffs on Chinese goods.
“Such a practice of extreme pressure and blackmailing deviates from the consensus reached by both sides on multiple occasions,” the ministry said in a statement.
“The United States has initiated a trade war and violated market regulations, and is harming the interests of not just the people of China and the U.S., but of the world.”
The comments sent global stock markets skidding and weakened both the dollar and the Chinese yuan on Tuesday. Shanghai stocks plunged to two-year lows. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 1.20 percent, with 29 out of 30 components in the index lower. The S&P 500 .SPX was down 0.73 percent.
Washington and Beijing appeared increasingly headed toward open trade conflict after several rounds of talks failed to resolve U.S. complaints over Chinese industrial policies, lack of market access in China and a $375 billion U.S. trade deficit.
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