Photo by Tom Fisk on Pexels.com
According to the Associated Press, earlier today, China threatened the US with retaliation if Trump goes through with his threat to impose sanctions on “List 4” of goods from China on September 1st.
The primary issues of disagreement between the US and China are the forced technology transfers that are required by US companies doing business in China in addition to the lack of intellectual property protections for companies doing business in China. Additionally, the US has also expressed concerns over China’s 2025.
At the current time, the US has imposed tariffs over $250 billion in Chinese imports while the China has imposed tariffs on over $110 billion in US goods. The proposed September 1st tariffs cover over $300 billion in goods – effectively covering all imports of goods from China. The US government may have an upper hand as China only imported about $160 billion in US goods – a number that highlights the unequal trade balance ($160 billion versus $550 billion).
It will be interesting to see how China retaliates, they can only threaten to impose an additional $50 billion in tariffs on US goods, only 1/6th of the what the US can impose.