Escalating tensions between the world’s two largest economies has reached heightened positions as the Chinese government strikes back. It all started with Trump’s decision to impose steel and aluminum tariffs targeted towards China. Breaching the grounds of national security, China claimed that Trump was abusing the global trade rules. The tariffs could potentially cost China billions of tax dollars and take out a hefty chunk of their yearly sector funds. In a response to Trump’s moves, China decided to hit back with tariffs on about ＄3 billion worth of US imports.

These tariffs targeted about 128 US products ranging anywhere from fruit, pork, meat, and steel pipes. But Trump also has more measures in the works aimed specifically at China. He has announced plans to slap tariffs on about ＄50 billion worth of Chinese goods following an investigation by his administration into the theft of intellectual property from US companies.

The administration has said those tariffs will punish the Chinese aerospace, technology and machinery industries, but it hasn’t officially announced which products have been targeted yet.

The tariffs are also not estimated to take direct implementation yet. It could take weeks, even months, for them to take full effect. Still, it’s unclear how this trade war is going to play out.

China and US are both valuable commodities of trade revenue for one another, and will still be losing out on tons of potential profit during this war. Take for the US example’s reliance of Chinese customers within the pork industry, who took up over ＄1.1 billion dollars in pork goods last year. China‘s Ministry of Commerce hopes that the United States will revert the tariffs as soon as possible so China and the US could get back on track with their trade agreements. However, the chance for that seems highly unlikely especially with Trump’s aggressive efforts to keep the tariffs intact.

<David Yi Oxford Academy 11th Grade>