China adds crude oil to tariffs list for first time in targeted retaliation against US
- Beijing will also resume imposing duties on American cars in what observers say is a restrained but focused response to latest US tariffs
- State media commentary says it was designed to ‘inflict pain on the US manufacturing sector’ and rattle US financial markets
Beijing has added American crude oil to its tariffs list for the first time and will resume applying duties on cars from the US in its latest retaliation against Washington, a response observers called restrained but with a clear focus.
The measures announced late on Friday were nowhere near the scale of the US tariffs, but items on the list were carefully chosen to inflict pain on American businesses while avoiding an impact on the Chinese economy, the observers said.
According to China’s Customs Tariff Commission, a total of 5,078 US products will be subject to additional tariffs of 10 per cent or 5 per cent. The new duties would be implemented in two batches – the first from September 1 and the second from December 15.
That will mean new tariffs on US$75 billion worth of American products, in response to Washington’s plan to impose a 10 per cent tariff on a further US$300 billion worth of Chinese imports.
Following Beijing’s announcement, US President Donald Trump said he would raise the 25 per cent tariff on US$250 billion worth of Chinese imports to 30 per cent from October 1, and the 10 per cent duty on US$300 billion worth of goods would go up to 15 per cent from September 1.
Among Beijing’s latest punitive duties, it will impose a 5 per cent tariff on US crude oil from September 1. US shipments to China have made up about 6 per cent of America’s total crude exports on average this year, according to data from the US Department of Energy and the Census Bureau.
