China claps back at Trump tariffs

Donald Trump has fired the opening salvo of his trade war, imposing tariffs on China on Tuesday that sparked instant retaliation from Beijing, amid fears for the global economic repercussions.

Moments after US tariffs of 10% came into effect, China swiftly announced an anti-trust investigation into Google. China’s finance ministry also announced 15% tariffs on coal and liquefied natural gas, and 10% on crude oil, farm equipment, large-displacement vehicles and pickup trucks from the US.

China’s commerce ministry and its customs administration said on Tuesday that to “safeguard national security interests” the country was imposing export controls on a raft of critical minerals: tungsten, tellurium, ruthenium, molybdenum and ruthenium-related items.

The commerce ministry also said it was adding the US companies PVH Group and Illumina Inc to its unreliable entity list, opening them to restrictions or penalties, without detailing what the companies were accused of. PVH is a clothing company that owns brands including Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. Illumina is a biotech company specialising in genomic sequencing that recently partnered with Nvidia on health-related AI tech.

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