Trump's trade war: How has China responded?

The first cannon has been fired in President Donald Trump's trade war, after new tariffs on Chinese imports came into effect on Tuesday. Trump described the move as the "opening salvo", prompting fears that a global 'tariff battle' could be underway. 

In response to the White House's additional 10 percent levy on goods coming in from China, Beijing immediately unveiled its own set of levies and controls. 

From Monday February 10, China imposed a number of additional import duties on U.S. products including: 

•15% on coal and liquified natural gas 

•10% on crude oil 

•10% on farming equipment 

•10% on large automobiles, such as pickup trucks. 

In total, around $14 billion of U.S. goods have been targeted. 

In addition, several other measures were announced:

•Export controls on 25 different types of rare metals, such as tungsten. 

•New companies added to China's 'unreliable entities' list 

•An anti-monopoly investigation into Google

•An official complaint against the U.S. lodged with the World Trade Organization (WTO) 

A spokesperson from the Chinese embassy to the U.S. said China "has taken necessary countermeasures in accordance with relevant laws and regulations and the basic principles of international law, which are completely justified and reasonable."

China wasn't the only nation in Trump's crosshairs. 

The U.S. President announced even bigger tariffs, of a whopping 25 percent, on Mexico and Canada over the weekend. But following phone calls with Claudia Sheinbaum and Justin Trudeau, he reversed the decision - and said the tariffs were "on hold" for another month. 

Trump was seeking assurances over border controls, and wanted both the Mexican and Canadian governments to commit more resources to combat  illegal trafficking of the drug fentanyl. According to Trump, both countries have now agreed to send a further 10,000 border force officers to the front line - prompting his u-turn on tariffs. 

But what does Trump's approach signal? 

Whilst on the campaign trail last year, Donald Trump described tariffs as "the most beautiful word in the dictionary" and outlined his ideological belief that import levies could one day replace income tax as the government's primary fiscal lever. 

In Trump's first term in office, he repeatedly claimed that China was "ripping off" the U.S. - but offered little in the way of explanation. This time around, his focus on the fentanyl issue perhaps signals a changing mindset towards tariffs. Tariffs may, in effect, be his primary negotiating tool. 

Commenting on the issue, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy to the U.S. said "at the U.S.'s request, China announced back in 2019 the decision to officially schedule fentanyl-related substances. We were the first country in the world to do so." 

"In recent years, China and the U.S. have carried out extensive, practical cooperation in the field of drug control, and made a lot of visual progress in the areas of substance control, information exchange, case cooperation, online advertisement cleanup, drug detection technology exchange, and multilateral interactions. The achievements we have made are there for all to see."

The U.S. government's pause on levies against Mexico and Canada show there is room for negotiation. Beijing's countermeasures are due to come into effect in seven days.