Late last night news broke out that in yet another round of the dangerous trade rhetoric between the United States and China the latter decided to impose tariffs on more than 100 American goods, including wine and meat, among others. This is retaliation for a previous move by the United States where they imposed tariffs on aluminum and steel imports from China and a few other countries.
Considering that the United States also proposed a second round of tariffs for China worth $50 billion, it is likely that China will come up with another group of tariffs to match those as well. In this tit-for-tat in taxes it appears that both countries are determined to stand their ground and fight back.
This has increased the overall expectation of a trade war. Right now it is more appropriate to talk about it as being a conflict between China and the United States alone, but the US is yet to declare whether the European Union and a few other countries will be spared from the steel and aluminum tariffs once the moratorium on those expires.
