China to slap 10 per cent tariffs on $75 billion of US exports

Beijing: China on Friday said it will impose additional 10 per cent tariffs on $75 billion worth of US exports in retaliation to President Donald Trump's threat to impose new tariffs on $300 billion worth of Chinese imports as trade war between the top two economies continues to intensify.

Since the commencement of trade war last year China and US have so far hit each other with punitive tariffs covering billions of dollars in two-way trade.

Trump kicked off the trade war demanding China to reduce massive trade deficit which last year climbed to over $539 billion. He is also insisting on China to workout verifiable measures for protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) technology transfer and more access to American goods to the Chinese markets.

On Friday China's Customs Tariff Commission said that Beijing will impose additional tariffs on US imports worth about $75 billion in response to the newly announced US tariff hikes on Chinese goods, the state-run Xinhua news agency quoted the Commission as saying.

Also, China will resume imposing additional tariffs of 25 per cent or 5 per cent on American-made vehicles and auto parts starting from 12:01 pm December 15, another announcement said.

The US government had announced on August 15 that it will impose additional tariffs of 10 per cent on Chinese goods worth about $300 billion effective on September 1 and December 15, respectively, in two batches.

The US move has led to a further escalation of bilateral trade frictions, greatly damaging the interests of China, the United States and other countries, and also gravely threatening the multilateral trading system and free trade principles, the statement said.