There has been yet another escalation in the trade conflict between the United States and China. Today the US President Donald Trump announced that unless China cooperates and signs a trade agreement with the United States, his administration will impose trade tariffs on another $300 billion worth of Chinese imports. Recall that about $200 billion worth of Chinese exports are already taxed with a 25% fee when they enter the United States. The duty is not paid by the Chinese, however, and instead is up to the American importers to deal with.
Earlier this year China and the United States took a 3-month break from their trade war to start negotiating a trade agreement that will put an end to it. Both sides seemed positive that the agreement is close to being ready just a month ago, but in May these attitudes soured. The US claimed that China went back on promises made early on in the talks, while Chinese negotiators insist that China had never agreed to anything that would damage their interests. Since then Trump increased his tariffs on Chinese goods from 10 to 25%, yet China did not give in to the pressure.
According to both China and the United States, the trade talks are still ongoing. Nevertheless, no high-ranking meetings have taken place over the last couple of weeks. Moreover, China’s stance is getting increasingly critical of the US, with a recent report outlining how trade with China has been advantageous to the United States for years, accusing the current US administration of twisting the facts in order to build a false case against China.
