America’s President Donald Trump has revealed and threatened to impose tariffs on an additional $200bn (£151bn) of Chinese goods in a growing trade row.
Mr Trump said the 10% tariffs would come into effect if China “refuses to change its practices”. The threats would be a major escalation of the dispute and sparked further falls on stock markets. China responded by accusing the US of “blackmail”, raising fears of a full-blown trade war.
Its commerce ministry said the country would take “qualitative” and “quantitative” measures and “fight back firmly” against additional tariff measures by the US government. Mr Trump insists that China has been unfairly benefiting from a trade imbalance with the US for years. During the 2016 election campaign, he promised to use tariffs to cut the US trade deficits.
But many economists have warned that tariffs are likely to make products more expensive for US consumers and hurt some of the businesses the administration is trying to protect, which depend on China for parts or assembly. Stock markets in Asia fell sharply on Tuesday, with Shanghai faring the worst, down 3.8%. European markets also suffered, trading more than 1% lower.
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