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World News See other World News Articles Title: China Strikes Back at Trump’s Tariffs, but Its Consumers Worry China Strikes Back at Trump’s Tariffs, but Its Consumers Worry A worker packing bottles of oil made from imported American soybeans at a factory in Qufu, China, on Wednesday. One-third of China’s soy imports last year came from the United States. Jason Lee/Reuters By Raymond Zhong July 6, 2018 SHANGHAI — Accusing the United States of “typical trade bullying,” China on Friday imposed $34 billion in retaliatory tariffs on American products, suggesting dim prospects for resolving a potentially bruising trade war between the two economic powerhouses. Beijing said on Friday that its levies had kicked in immediately after the Trump administration’s tariffs went into effect, just past midnight in Washington. Chinese officials did not immediately specify which products would be hit, although they had previously threatened to tax pork, soybeans and automobiles — products aimed at hitting President Trump’s supporters in the agricultural and industrial parts of the Midwest. As it has in the past, China used the moment to cast itself as a defender of the global trade order. Beijing officials have portrayed Mr. Trump’s threats to tax as much as $450 billion worth of Chinese goods as a threat to global prosperity. “The wrong actions of the U.S. have brazenly violated the rules of the World Trade Organization, attacked the whole world’s economic sustainability and obstructed the global economy’s recovery,” Lu Kang, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, said in a daily news briefing. “It will bring disaster to multinational corporations, small and medium businesses and normal consumers across the world.” China’s state-controlled news media echoed the sentiment. “As the American side has gradually closed in on China, it has aroused the ire of Chinese society, and made Chinese people more clearheaded, more united,” said an editorial on the website of Global Times, a nationalist tabloid owned by the Communist Party. “Washington has obviously underestimated the giant force that the world’s opposition and China’s retaliation can produce.” But Chinese news outlets have stopped short of language that would suggest appetite for a major escalation, such as a consumer boycott of American brands. China has become a key market for brands such as Apple, Nike, Starbucks and General Motors. Consumer boycotts have proven effective in Beijing’s earlier disputes with South Korea, Japan and the Philippines. But targeting American goods could be trickier. The iPhones, Chevrolets and other goods that American companies sell in China are often made in China, and by Chinese workers. Still, some consumers said they could imagine making do without iPhones or American cars as a way to strike back against Washington. Poster Comment: Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
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