China hit back on Wednesday with an additional 50 per cent tariff on US imports, matching the extra levy imposed overnight by Donald Trump on Chinese goods. That made the running totals 104 per cent so far from Washington, vs 84 per cent from Beijing, prompting one analyst to compare them to two racing cars driving straight at each other in a high stakes game of chicken. Though in the immediate aftermath of China’s latest hike, the loudest cackling came from panicked stock markets, which continue to tumble amid a growing realisation that for the moment neither side is going to swerve.
For good measure, China also added 12 more US companies to export control and unreliable entity lists, which restrict Chinese companies from doing business with them. They included the manufacturers of laser optics, medical devices and a subsidiary of Boeing that makes drones.
Beijing’s tariff commission called the US escalation a ‘mistake on top of a mistake’, demanding Washington ‘cancel all unilateral tariff measures against China.’
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