BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese imports took effect as a deadline passed on Friday, and with Beijing having vowed to respond immediately in kind, the two biggest economies were set on a risky path toward a full-blown trade war.
Earlier on Friday, before the 0401 GMT deadline for tariffs was set to take effect, China’s state media lashed out at U.S. President Donald Trump, accusing the White House of behaving like a “gang of hoodlums” as the world’s two biggest economies headed toward outright trade war on Friday.
On Thursday, Trump warned that the United States may ultimately target over $500 billion worth of Chinese goods, or roughly the total amount that the United States imported from China last year.
Beijing has vowed to respond immediately with an equal amount of tariffs of its own against U.S. autos, agricultural and other products.
Chinese shares, which have been battered in the run-up to the tariff deadline, slipped further from early deals and pulled Asian markets down, while the yuan currency also weakened.
“In effect, the Trump administration is behaving like a gang of hoodlums with its shakedown of other countries, particularly China,” the state-run China Daily newspaper said in an English language editorial on Friday.
“Its unruliness looks set to have a profoundly damaging impact on the global economic landscape in the coming decades, unless countries stand together to oppose it.”
While the initial volley of tariffs was not expected to have major immediate economic impact, the fear is that a prolonged battle would disrupt makers and importers of affected goods in a blow to global trade,
