Global Geopolitical Series: Trade war is on with China announcing retaliatory tariffs on $3 billion U.S. goods against United States’ $60 billion

Time for speculations is over. The much-anticipated trade war is here with U.S. and China exchanging retaliatory tariff moves.

On Thursday, President Trump unveiled a section 301 action with a broad aim to reduce U.S. massive trade deficit with China ($375 billion in 2017) and with an immediate aim to bring China to the negotiating table with the United States. Though U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer would unveil the targeted good and products at a later day, President Trump announced that there would be tariffs on goods worth $60 billion in response to China’s alleged theft of U.S. intellectual properties. Here is a full statement from the White House on the 301 action, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-memorandum-actions-united-states-related-section-301-investigation/. There is a 30-day period before the tariffs go live.

In response to the announcement, China said that they could target 128 good from the United States with an import value of $3 billion. While the amount is much smaller compared to the United States’ plan of $60 billion, China could target U.S. agricultural goods, which would be a direct hit to farmers from the state which voted in favor of the Trump Presidency in 2016 election.