Exporters in China awoke on Friday to find they now have few ways to avoid US President Donald Trump’s planned 10 per cent tariff on US$300 billion of Chinese goods, leading to the suggestion that he has “declared war on Christmas”.
Trump took to Twitter to announce that almost all remaining Chinese imports to the United States would be subject to the duty from September 1, breaking the short-lived “truce” established after a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Japan at the end of June. There has been no official confirmation of the new tariff.
Many of the goods on the fourth list of trade war tariffs are consumer products often given as Christmas gifts. Of the US$300 billion, mobile phones make up the largest portion at US$44.8 billion, followed by laptops at US$38.7 billion, toys at US$11.9 billion, and video game consoles at US$5.4 billion, according to US International Trade Commission figures.
