Trump imposes fresh tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods

The Trump administration will impose tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods starting next week, escalating a trade war between the world's two biggest economies and potentially raising prices on goods ranging from handbags to bicycle tires.

The tariffs will start at 10 percent, beginning Monday, and then rise to 25 percent on January 1.

President Donald Trump made the announcement on Monday in a move that is sure to ratchet up hostilities between Washington and Beijing. 

TRT World's Kevin McAleese has more. 

The Trump administration has already imposed 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods earlier this year. 

And China has retaliated in kind, hitting American soybeans, among other goods, in a shot at the president's supporters in the US farm belt.

Beijing has warned that it would hit an additional $60 billion in American goods. 

If China does retaliate, Trump has threatened to add a further $267 billion in Chinese imports to the target list. 

That would raise the total to $517 billion — covering nearly everything China sells the United States.

After a public comment period, Washington said that it had withdrawn some items from its preliminary list of $200 billion in Chinese imports to be taxed, including child-safety products like bicycle helmets. 

And in a victory for Apple and its American customers, the administration removed smartwatches and some other consumer electronic products from the list of goods to be targeted by the new tariffs.

Open to negotiations

At the same time, the Trump administration said it remains open to negotiations with China.

"China has had many opportunities to fully address our concerns," Trump said in a statement. "I urge China's leaders to take swift action to end their country's unfair trade practices."

Trump has complained about America's gaping trade deficit — $336 billion last year — with China, its biggest trading partner.

In the first two rounds of tariffs, the Trump administration took care to try to spare American consumers from the direct impact of the import taxes. 

The tariffs focused on industrial products, not on things Americans buy at the mall or via Amazon.

By expanding the list to $200 billion of Chinese imports, Trump risks spreading the pain to ordinary households. 

The administration is targeting a bewildering variety of products — from sockeye salmon to baseball gloves to bamboo mats — forcing US companies to scramble for suppliers outside China, absorb the import taxes or pass along the cost to their customers.

In a filing with the government, for instance, Giant Bicycles of Newbury Park, California, noting that 94 percent of imported bicycles came from China last year, complained that "there is no way our business can shift its supply chain to a new market" to avoid the tariffs and warned "a tariff increase of this magnitude will inevitably be paid for by the American consumer."

Journalist Samantha Vadas has more on what China's response may be.

Not the only fight picked 

Trump has picked fights with other trading partners — from imposing tariffs on imported steel and aluminium from the EU to demanding that Mexico and Canada transform the North American Free Trade Agreement into a deal more favourable to the US.

Trump's tariffs on China raise costs and create uncertainty for companies that have built supply chains that span the Pacific Ocean. 

Some companies are looking to move out of China to dodge the tariffs, said Ted Murphy, a partner at the Baker McKenzie law firm.