China announced Tuesday, February 4, that it would impose customs duties of 15 % on imports of American coal and natural gas (LNG), hardening its position in the commercial showdown hired by Donald Trump.
In addition, 10 % customs taxes will be imposed on American oil imports and other categories of goods from the United States: agricultural machines, large displacement sports vehicles and van, added the Ministry of Finance. New customs duties must come into force on February 10, he announced.
These announcements from Beijing are an immediate replica at the entry into force, this Tuesday at 3:00 am French time, of an increase of 10 % by the United States of American customs rights over all of the products imported from China. These American taxes promulgated by Donald Trump “seriously violate the rules of the World Trade Organization, do nothing to solve the own problems (of the United States) and disrupts normal economic and commercial cooperation” between the two countries, insisted the Chinese ministry.
In a press release, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced that a complaint had been filed with the WTO: “China, to defend its legitimate rights, filed a complaint on American customs duties before the mechanism of disputes from the World Trade Organization “.
These Chinese announcements also come up with a possible imminent discussion between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Donald Trump, announced on Monday “probably” in “24 hours” by the White House spokesperson Karoline Leavittt .
Investigation against Google
At the same time, Beijing announced on Tuesday to open an investigation against the American technological giant Google, which she says that she suspects having violated her anti-monopoly regulations. “Google being suspected of having violated the anti-monopoly law of the People’s Republic of China, the state agency for market regulation launched an investigation (in the American group) in accordance with the law,” said the organization government in a press release.
At the same time, China has announced the addition of the American ready-to-wear group PVH Corp., which owns Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, and the biotechnology giant Illumina to a list of “unreliable entities”. The measure aims to “preserve national sovereignty, security and interest in development,” said the Chinese Ministry of Commerce in a press release. “These two entities have broken the principles of trade by interrupting their transactions with Chinese companies and adopting discriminatory measures against them,” the statement added.
By announcing customs duties in Canada, Mexico and China, Donald Trump said in particular that he wanted to force these three countries to act to reduce the traffic of fentanyl, an opioid responsible for a serious health crisis in the United States, And resolve an American trade balance heavily in deficit with these countries. China, for its part, denies all passivity in this file, and says does not knowingly “seek” a trade surplus.