Beijing retaliated against Donald Trump’s prices on Chinese imports with his own rights, but has limited their scope in a possible offer to avoid a full -fledged trade war.
Measures against American products ranging from natural gas liquefied to cars will take effect on February 10 and were announced on Tuesday, a few hours after the entry into force of Trump’s new additional price on Chinese products.
Beijing also said he would launch an antitrust probe on Google, whose search engine is blocked in China.
The new tariffs in China target approximately $ 14 billion in goods, according to Citigroup analysts – less than 10% of the total imports from the United States in 2023, last year for which there was complete data.
This decision was “not a climbing response,” said Chris Beddor, deputy research director in China at Givekal. “They clearly aim for negotiations and an agreement.”
The commercial relationship between the United States and China has shaped the savings of the two countries in recent decades. But the share of China on total imports of the United States has already dropped since Trump introduced prices during his first mandate.
China’s latest measures against the United States will impose prices between 10 and 15% on American LNG, coal, crude oil and agricultural equipment. Beijing will also impose prices on certain imports of cars from the United States and additional export controls on five rare metals.
Trump should speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping in the coming days, which has hoped that the two leaders will be able to conclude a agreement to avoid a full -fledged trade between the two biggest economies in the world.
The Hong Kong Hang Seng index, which had increased up to 3.3% at the start of negotiations, lost part of its earnings to close 2.7%, while the offshore renminbi was slightly strengthened at 7 , 32 RMB and down around 1% by around 1%.
Initial reprisals were a “more symbolic decision,” said Oxford Economics analysts, adding that Beijing’s decision has been increased by the overall weighted weighted rate of 2 percentage points on American imports.
The Google investigation for alleged violations of anti-monopoly laws was announced Tuesday by the antitrust regulator in Beijing.
While the search engine is blocked in China – as well as most companies in the parent company Alphabet – the American group takes advantage of Chinese companies announcing abroad.
Chinese phonémakers also largely use its Android operating system, a longtime frustration point for Chinese officials, who rub the American control of most smartphones.
During the first Trump administration, Washington blocked Huawei from Google’s software ecosystem, damaging sales of the Chinese national champion’s smartphone outside its domestic market.
Referring to this week’s moves by Washington and Beijing, Louise Loo, economist in China at Oxford Economics, wrote in a note that “Clearly trade war [is] In the early stages ”.
Trump has annoyed allies and investors with an announcement on Friday evening withdrawals in Canada, Mexico and China, which he has accused of not having braked immigration and the flow of mortal opioid fiole and its precursors in the States -Unis.
But prices against Canada and Mexico were suspended for a month after last minute talks on Monday between Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
The Chinese Finance Ministry said that the American prices have violated the rules of the World Trade Organization. “It is not only useless to solve your own problems, but also undermines normal economic and commercial cooperation between China and the United States,” he said, announcing new prices.
The ministry said that American coal and LNG exports would face an additional 15%rate, while crude oil, agricultural machinery, cars and vans would receive a tariff of 10%.
China was the second buyer of American coal in the first three quarters of 2024, representing 10.9% of total coal exports and only drags India, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration.
The country represented 2.9% of American natural gas exports from January to November 2024, according to EIA figures.
The White House did not respond to a request for comments.
The Chinese Commerce Ministry also announced Tungsten export controls on Tuesday and more than two dozen other rare metal products and technologies, with immediate effect.
Goldman Sachs analysts described China as a “dominant producer” of metals subjected to controls, adding that “critical minerals [were] An increasingly important lever ”.
The Wall Street Bank noted that Beijing had blocked the exports of several other key minerals in December – a decision that struck the American semiconductor industry.
Tuesday, China also expanded its “list of unreliable entities”, a black list of national security, by adding an American biotechnology group Illumina and PVH Group, an American clothing manufacturer whose brands include Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger .
The ministry had previously investigated PVH for alleged discrimination against the cotton of the
There was a certain optimism for an agreement in the coming days to facilitate trade tensions. The antitrust probe on Google was designed as another negotiation chip, similar to the Chinese probe on the manufacturer of American chips Nvidia, said the Beddor of Givekal.
But some economists have expressed doubts that one or the other part had a lot of room for maneuver.
“The probability of [an] The agreement to avoid prices seems limited, “Robin Xing, chief economist of China, told Morgan Stanley. “Paths towards de -escalation. . . Staying narrow and would require significant compromises on both sides. »»
Additional Demetri Sevastopulo reports in Washington and Zijing Wu in Hong Kong
