On June 15, 2018, shortly after the United States indicated that it would soon impose higher tariffs on certain Chinese goods, as a result of USTR’s 301 investigation into China’s intellectual property and technology transfer policies.  the Ministry of Commerce spokesman issued the following statement:

China and the United States have conducted several rounds of consultations on economic and trade issues in an effort to resolve differences and achieve a win-win situation. We deeply regret that the United States has disregarded the consensus it has formed and is fickle, provoking a trade war. This move is not only damaging bilateral interests but also undermining the world trade order. China firmly opposes this.

China does not want to fight a trade war. However, in the face of the short-sighted behavior that the United States has done against people, China has to respond strongly and firmly defend the interests of the country and the people, and resolutely safeguard economic globalization and the multilateral trading system. We will immediately introduce taxation measures of the same scale and the same strength. All the economic and trade achievements previously reached by the two parties will be invalid at the same time.

China has announced that “In order to defend its legitimate rights and interests,” it has decided to rely on the laws and regulations of the Foreign Trade Law of the People’s Republic of China and other basic principles of international law and impose tariffs on soybean, agricultural products , automobiles , and water originating in the United States. Products and other imported goods will be subject to tariff levying measures at a tax rate of 25%, involving about 34 billion U.S. dollars in imports from the United States in 2017 (see Annex 1). The above measures will take effect from July 6, 2018.

At the same time, China intends to impose an import tariff of 25% on commodities imported from the United States, including chemicals, medical equipment, and energy products, involving approximately US$16 billion in US imports from the United States in 2017 (see Annex 2), final measures, and effective time will be announced separately .

Annexes: