The Trump administration has announced a list of products worth $200 billion as it considers imposing 10 percent tariffs on Chinese imports. The products on the list included certain metal products such as pig iron, cast iron scrap and stainless steel scrap.
Chinese Ministry of Commerce said that they are shocked by the actions of the US and “in order to safeguard the core interests of the country and the fundamental interests of the people, the Chinese government will, as always, have to make the necessary counter-measures”. At the same time, China will immediately file an additional lawsuit against the US at the World Trade Organization.
David Dollar, a senior fellow at the international think-tank Brookings Institution, commented, “China is in a fairly good position to weather this storm. Its economy is less dependent on exports in general, and exports to the US in particular, than just a decade earlier. The value-added in its exports to the US is less than three percent of its economy. This reflects the fact that China is at the end of many global value chains, which include inputs from the US, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Some of the pain from the US tariffs will hit these other economies, not China.”