The US announced its list of proposed tariffs earlier, prompting a swift response from China ....
As it unfolded:
- US issues list of Chinese products for tariffs, around $50bn of imports to be impacted
- China press (Xinhua): US list of China goods violates international trading rules
- China's US embassy: Unilateral, protectionist action violated principles & values of WTO
- China Commerce Ministry: Ready to take reciprocal action, of equal intensity and scale
- US Treas Sec Mnuchin: Will continue to engage with China on reciprocal trade
The key point in all this was China's Commerce ministry threat/promise to respond with
- reciprocal measures of equal intensity and scale
Up until now the Chinese response was extra tariffs on around USD3bn of imports from the US, which was small compared with US proposals for USD50bn of measures on imports from China.
If China escalates its response to be reciprocal & of equal intensity and scale .... well, that's not looking good for a de-escalation of the situation any time soon. Which will be a weight on 'risk'.
