{"id":15069,"date":"2025-02-04T13:32:35","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T13:32:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/torontotribune.ca\/index.php\/2025\/02\/04\/china-hits-back-at-u-s-with-counter-tariffs-will-investigate-google-national\/"},"modified":"2025-02-04T13:32:35","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T13:32:35","slug":"china-hits-back-at-u-s-with-counter-tariffs-will-investigate-google-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/torontotribune.ca\/index.php\/2025\/02\/04\/china-hits-back-at-u-s-with-counter-tariffs-will-investigate-google-national\/","title":{"rendered":"China hits back at U.S. with counter tariffs, will investigate Google – National"},"content":{"rendered":"


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China<\/a> countered President Donald Trump\u2019s across-the-board tariffs on Chinese products with tariffs on select U.S. imports Tuesday, as well as announcing an antitrust investigation into Google and other trade measures.<\/p>\n

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U.S. tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico were also set to go into effect Tuesday before Trump agreed to a 30-day pause as the two countries acted to appease his concerns about border security and drug trafficking. Trump planned to talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the next few days.<\/p>\n

The Chinese response was \u201cmeasured,\u201d said John Gong, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. \u201cI don\u2019t think they want the trade war escalating,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd they see this example from Canada and Mexico and probably they are hoping for the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first round of tit-for-tat actions between the two countries. China and the U.S. had engaged in a trade war in 2018 when Trump raised tariffs on Chinese goods and China responded in kind.<\/p>\n

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This time, analysts said, China is much better prepared to counter, with the government announcing a slew of measures that cut across different sectors of the economy, from energy to individual U.S. companies.<\/p>\n

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China said it would implement a 15% tariff on coal and liquefied natural gas products as well as a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars imported from the U.S. The tariffs would take effect next Monday.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe U.S.\u2019s unilateral tariff increase seriously violates the rules of the World Trade Organization,\u201d the State Council Tariff Commission said in a statement. \u201cIt is not only unhelpful in solving its own problems, but also damages normal economic and trade cooperation between China and the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The impact on U.S. exports may be limited. Though the U.S. is the biggest exporter of liquid natural gas globally, it does not export much to China. In 2023, the U.S. exported 173,247 million cubic feet of LNG to China, representing about 2.3% of total natural gas exports, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.<\/p>\n

China imported only about 700,000 cars overall last year, and the leading importers are from Europe and Japan, said Bill Russo, the founder of the Automobility Limited consultancy in Shanghai.<\/p>\n

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China announced export controls on several elements critical to the production of modern high-tech products.<\/p>\n

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They include tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum and indium, many of which are designated as critical minerals by the U.S. Geological Survey, meaning they are essential to U.S. economic or national security that have supply chains vulnerable to disruption.<\/p>\n

The export controls are in addition to ones China placed in December on key elements such as gallium.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have a much more developed export control regime,\u201d Philip Luck, an economist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former State Department official, said at a panel discussion on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe depend on them for a lot of critical minerals: gallium, germanium, graphite, a host of others,\u201d he said. \u201cSo \u2026 they could put some significant harm on our economy.\u201d<\/p>\n