Trade war threats get real as US and China impose tariffs

Donald Trump has turned his threats of a trade war into reality. (Photo: AP)

 

US President Donald Trump fired the biggest shot yet in the global trade war by imposing tariffs on $US34 billion ($46 billion) of Chinese imports. China immediately said it would be forced to retaliate.

The duties on Chinese goods started at 12:01 am Friday in Washington (2:01 pm AEST), which was just after midday in China. Another $US16 billion of goods could follow in two weeks, Trump earlier told reporters, before suggesting the final total could eventually reach $US550 billion, a figure that exceeds all of US goods imports from China in 2017.

US customs officials will begin collecting an additional 25 per cent tariff on imports from China of goods ranging from farming plows to semiconductors and airplane parts. China’s officials have previously said they would respond by imposing higher levies on goods ranging from American soybeans to pork, which may in turn prompt Trump to raise trade barriers even higher.

China-Canada deal means key move of RMB internationalization: expert

The China-Canada agreement on establishing North America’s first offshore renminbi center in Canada accelerates the process of the Chinese currency’s internationalization, said a Canadian expert.

“We should prepare to see the RMB to be much more widely used to become an international currency,” said Domenico Lombardi, an expert on global economy from Canada’s think tank Centre for International Governance Innovation’s global (CIGI).

The establishment of the RMB center symbolizes a key development in the process, Lombardi said in a recent interview with Xinhua. It will help deepen the bilateral relationship between China and Canada, the expert added.