BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and China slapped tit-for-tat duties on $34 billion worth of each other’s imports on Friday, with Beijing accusing Washington of triggering the “largest-scale trade war” as the world’s two biggest economies sharply escalated their conflict.
Hours before Washington’s deadline for the tariffs to take effect, U.S. President Donald Trump upped the ante on its largest trading partner, warning that the United States may ultimately target over $500 billion worth of Chinese goods, or roughly the total amount of U.S. imports from China last year.
(GRAPHIC: U.S. trade with China - tmsnrt.rs/2KAT34a)
(GRAPHIC: China trade with U.S. - reut.rs/2HjTuSw)
China’s commerce ministry, in a statement shortly after the U.S. deadline passed at 0401 GMT on Friday, said it was forced to retaliate, meaning imported U.S. goods including cars, soybeans, and lobsters also faced 25 percent tariffs.
Some of Trump’s fellow Republicans in the U.S. Congress lashed out at his actions.
“Tariffs not only hurt our farmers, ranchers and airplane manufacturers, but they also harm every American consumer. We should be working with our allies to isolate China rather than escalate a trade war,” said Senator Jerry Moran, who represents the agriculture-heavy state of Kansas.
China’s soymeal futures fell more than 2 percent on Friday afternoon before recovering most of those losses, amid initial market confusion over whether Beijing had actually implemented the tariffs, which it later confirmed it had.
“We can probably say that the trade war has officially started,” said Chen Feixiang, professor of applied economics at Shanghai Jiaotong University’s Antai College of Economics and Management.
“If this ends at $34 billion, it will have a marginal effect on both economies, but if it escalates to $500 billion like Trump said,
