Washington tariffs $200B in Chinese goods, Beijing retaliates with $60B

Tariffs

Shoppers spend their time near a bench in a shape of a mocked aerial bomb and a U.S. flag outside a fashion boutique selling U.S. brand clothing at the capital city’s popular shopping mall in Beijing, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018. China raised tariffs Monday on thousands of U.S. goods in an escalation of its fight with President Donald Trump over technology policy and accused Washington of bullying Beijing and damaging the global economy. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

The trade war between the U.S. and China is now being fought on a scale we haven’t seen before.

CGTN’s Owen Fairclough reports.

Washington has imposed duties on an additional $200 billion of Chinese imports. With tariffs already in place on $50 billion, the combined total is effectively a huge tax on around half China’s imports to the U.S.

Beijing reacted swiftly: duties on $60 billion of U.S. imports.

It’s a double whammy for American companies like Boeing.

The aircraft manufacturer buys many of the millions of parts it needs from China; and now it’ll pay extra to export its goods to China.

Before this new round of tariffs, these two interdependent partners had at least started talking to each other officially – even if they were essentially talking about talks.

Not anymore.

Beijing reportedly scrapped plans for a trade delegation to visit Washington DC this week.

These two sides remain too far apart: the U.S. accusing China of unfair trade practices that harm its economy; China denying this.

And to reinforce the point, Beijing on Monday published a White Paper entitled The Facts and China’s Position on China-US Trade Friction.

The 67-page document is a strident riposte to what Beijing calls American bullying on trade.

But it also appeals to Washington that Beijing remains committed to relations with the U.S. as well as protecting intellectual property – one of President Donald Trump’s most vocal complaints.

Last week, Alibaba founder Jack Ma suggested this trade war could last 20 years.

If that seems fanciful, consider that Trump is threatening to hit China with duties on another $267 billion of its U.S. exports – a move that would hit every kind of consumer and industrial product.