As the U.S.-China trade war intensifies, Beijing is calling on India to join in resisting what it terms President Donald Trump’s ‘abuse’ of tariffs. The tit-for-tat trade actions have shaken global markets and put additional pressure on emerging economies.
The trade war started when Trump raised a 34% tariff on Chinese imports, triggering China to retaliate by imposing the same 34% tariff on U.S. exports. Trump retaliated by vowing to increase tariffs again by another 50% if China failed to remove its countermeasures.
In a statement, Yu Jing, the Chinese embassy spokesperson in India, condemned the U.S. policy and urged India to join hands with China. “China-India economic and trade relation is founded on complementarity and mutual benefit. Confronted with the US tariff abuse, which is depriving countries, in particular Global South countries, of their rights of development, the two largest developing countries should unite to surmount the difficulties,” she said.
Yu also pointed out China’s contribution to the growth of global economy. “China’s economy is supported by a system that guarantees stable growth,” she said, terming China as “a keen advocate of economic globalisation and multilateralism,” making “30% of world growth on average.
She also stressed that “all countries should uphold the principles of extensive consultation, practice true multilateralism, jointly oppose all forms of unilateralism and protectionism,” adding, “trade and tariff wars have no winners.”
Trump’s Tariff Strategy
President Trump has resorted to sweeping tariff increases, such as a 10% duty on imports from all nations and targeted levies up to 26% for Indian products. India, nonetheless, has not struck back and is rather seeking a bilateral trade agreement with the United States.
The trade tensions were further fueled when the White House said it would impose a broad 104% tariff on all Chinese imports, which would take effect at midnight on April 8. Trump’s administration said the intention was to “level the playing field,” with the President accusing other countries of “looting the US” with their tariffs on US exports.
On Monday, Trump condemned China for going ahead with retaliation after prior warnings, stating that “any action would be met with immediate and substantially higher tariffs.” Trump also declared the termination of current negotiations with China, choosing instead to open talks with other nations.
In retort, China accused America of “blackmailing” and threatened it was making “a mistake on top of a mistake.” China claimed it is completely prepared to counter the new tariffs and noted it has proved resilient since the previous trade war under Trump’s last term.
Trump’s latest 34% tariff, along with a previous 20% duty, takes the overall levies on Chinese imports to 54%. China has retaliated with tariffs of up to 15% on various U.S. agricultural products such as soybeans, pork, and chicken.
