China yesterday countered US President Donald Trump’s across-the-board tariffs on Chinese products with tariffs on select US imports, as well as announcing an antitrust investigation into Google and other trade measures.
US tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico were also set to go into effect yesterday before Trump agreed to a 30-day pause, as the two countries acted to appease his concerns about border security and drug trafficking.
Trump planned to talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in the next few days.
Photo: EPA-EFE
China said it would implement a 15 percent tariff on coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG) products, as well as a 10 percent tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine vehicles imported from the US. The tariffs are to take effect on Monday next week.
“The US’ unilateral tariff increase seriously violates the rules of the World Trade Organization,” the Chinese State Council Tariff Commission said in a statement. “It is not only unhelpful in solving its own problems, but also damages normal economic and trade cooperation between China and the US.”
The impact on US exports might be limited. Although the US is the biggest exporter of LNG, it does not export much to China. In 2023, the US exported 4,906 million cubic meters of LNG to China, or about 2.3 percent of total natural gas exports, US Energy Information Administration data showed.
China imported only about 700,000 vehicles overall last year, mainly from Europe and Japan, said Bill Russo, the founder of the Automobility Ltd consultancy in Shanghai.
China also announced export controls on several elements critical to the production of modern high-tech products. They include tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum and indium, many of which are designated as critical minerals by the US Geological Survey, meaning they are essential to US economic or national security that have supply chains vulnerable to disruption. The export controls are in addition to ones China placed in December on key elements such as gallium.
In addition, the Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation yesterday said it is investigating Google on suspicion of breaching antitrust laws. The announcement did not mention the tariffs, but came just minutes after Trump’s 10 percent tariffs on China were to take effect.
It was unclear how the probe would affect Google’s operations.
The company has long faced complaints from Chinese smartphone makers over its business practices surrounding the Android operating system, said John Gong, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.
Otherwise, Google has a limited presence in China, and its search engine is blocked in the country like most other Western platforms. Google did not immediately comment.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce also placed two US companies on an unreliable entities list: PVH Group, which owns Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, and Illumina, which is a biotechnology company with offices in China.
The listing could bar them from engaging in China-related import or export activities and from making new investments in the country.
Beijing began investigating PVH Group in September last year over “improper Xinjiang-related behavior” after the company allegedly boycotted the use of Xinjiang cotton.
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