*WASHINGTON – Donald Trump to slap additional $200 billion taxes inChinese goods, escalating a confrontation between the world’s two biggesteconomies and likely squeezing US companies that import everything fromhandbags to bicycle tires.*
The administration could decide to begin taxing the imports equal to nearly40pc of all the goods China sold the United States last year after a publiccomment period ends Thursday.
China said it is ready to impose retaliatory tariffs on $60bn worth of USgoods if that happens.
“China will have to take necessary countermeasures if the US side ignoresthe opposition of the overwhelming majority of its enterprises and adoptsnew tariff measures,” Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said Thursday.
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The US has already imposed tariffs on $50bn in Chinese products, andBeijing has punched back with tariffs on $50bn in American goods. These USgoods include soybeans and beef a direct shot at supporters of PresidentDonald Trump in the US farm belt.
Trump initiated the trade war to punish Beijing for what it says areChina’s predatory tactics to try to supplant US technological supremacy.Those tactics, the Office of the US Trade Representative has alleged,include stealing trade secrets through computer hacking and forcing UScompanies to hand over technology in exchange for access to the Chinesemarket.
