Beijing began to impose rates on Monday at many farm products from the United States, for which China is the largest overseas market. It is the last escalation of a trade fight between the two largest economies in the world.
The Chinese government announced the rates last week, shortly after President Trump for the second time since he had raised rates on Chinese products in January. The Chinese rates include a tax of 15 percent on American products such as chicken, wheat and corn, as well as 10 percent on products such as soybeans, pork, beef and fruit.
Beijing said that goods that had already been sent on Monday and had not been imported before 12 April would not be subjected to the new rates.
A spokesperson for the National People's Congress, the annual session of China, said last week that Mr. Trump's newest rates “had disrupted the safety and stability of the global industrial and supply chains.”
The Chinese government also said it blocked 15 American companies to buy Chinese products unless the special permission granted, including a manufacturer of drones that the US Army delivers. And it said it blocked another 10 American companies to do business in China.
Mr. Trump imposed a rate of 10 percent on almost all imports from China at the beginning of February and increased the rate to 20 percent last week. He said that the actions were partly intended to put pressure on China to reduce the flow of opioid fentanyl to the United States.
Mr. Trump also imposed 25 percent rates on Canada and Mexico last Tuesday, although he abruptly suspended two days later.
He has added 20 percent rates to around $ 440 billion in Chinese goods that the United States imports annually. The average American rate on affected Chinese goods is now 39 percent, an increase of 3 percent when Mr. Trump started his first term eight years ago. Apart from China, Canada and Mexico, the United States gather rates of an average of about 3 percent in most countries.
Despite the recent escalations in the trade war between Washington and Beijing, both parties have indicated that they may be open to a compromise. Last week, the Chinese Trade Minister to reporters said that he had invited his American counterpart and the American trade representative for a meeting. And last month Mr. Trump said that a new trade agreement with China was 'possible'.
Monday's taxes are not the first time in recent weeks that China has responded to Mr Trump's trade actions. After the president had imposed 10 percent rates at the beginning of February, China said that it would install rates for natural gas, coal and agricultural machinery that were purchased from the United States.
But the United States have more goals in a trade war because Americans buy many more goods from China than the Chinese purchase of Americans. This enabled the United States to make China relatively easy after China had imposed mutual rates on American goods during Mr Trump's first term.
China is also hampered by a number of economic problems, including weak foreign investments and the aftermath of a real estate.
Yet China has other tools for managing the current trading opportunities. In the past, taxes have reduced to Chinese companies that export goods to the United States, so that they can lower prices and dampen the effects of an American rate.
Chinese companies have also moved the final meeting of their products to countries such as Vietnam and Mexico, with which the United States has had relatively free trade relations in recent decades. But Mr. Trump has tried to sharpen this Maas in the law by threatening the rates on Mexico.
And Chinese companies have tried to use the so-called the Minimis rule, which exempts packages from rates if their value is $ 800 or less. Mr. Trump tried to fight this practice, but the performance turned out to be complicated to implement and Mr Trump has largely paused the effort.
