China retaliates against U.S. tariffs with its own levies

In response to the United States imposing a 10% tariff on Chinese goods, Beijing announced additional tariffs ranging from 10% to 15% on imports of U.S. coal, liquefied natural gas (LNG), crude oil, and agricultural machinery. The new tariff measures are set to take effect on February 10.

Just minutes after the U.S. tariffs went into effect, the Chinese government declared that additional tariffs would be imposed on certain U.S. goods. In a statement, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council of China said, “This unilateral tariff increase by the U.S. seriously violates World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, does nothing to solve its own problems, and undermines China-U.S. economic and trade cooperation.”

These new tariff measures have once again raised concerns about a potential trade war between the world’s two largest economies. While the Trump administration has suspended the 25% tariffs on goods imported from Canada and Mexico for 30 days, no similar agreement has been reached with China. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that President Trump is expected to hold discussions with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the coming days.

In retaliation, China's State Administration for Market Regulation announced an antitrust investigation into U.S. tech giant Google. Additionally, U.S. gene sequencing company Illumina and fashion conglomerate PVH Corp. (the parent company of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger) have been added to the "unreliable entity list," restricting their operations in China.