Trade war between the US and China worsens

President Donald Trump has approved tariffs of $50 billion of Chinese exports. An official announcement on the proceedings is expected to be made soon. President gave this approval after a meeting on Thursday with Steven Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary, and Wilbur Ross, Commerce Secretary. 

Such an implementation of tariffs on Chinese exports alludes to serious escalation of trade tensions between the United States and China, the two largest economies of the world. This comes right after President Trump fought with allies on the G7 summit held in Canada on putting tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. China has also stated that it will also impose retaliatory tariffs on $50 billion worth of US imports coming into China. These imports include planes, cars and soybeans. President Trump has been toying with imposing tariffs on Chinese imports for a long period of time as a punishment for intellectual property theft.

Donald Trump first mentioned imposing tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese imports back in March. He asserted that the United States has a tremendous intellectual property theft problem with China and imposing tariffs will make the US much richer and stronger. After China responded to the tariff threat, Trump threatened to impose tariffs on a further $100 billion of Chinese products.

Both sides announced a ceasefire after two rounds of negotiations in mid-May. After these negotiations, China agreed to increase its purchases of US energy and agricultural products in order to reach a trade balance between the two countries. Thereafter treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, put the prospect of a trade war with China on hold.

Just after ten days later, The White House asserted that the US will impose tariffs and will also limit Chinese investments in the United States. It further stated that the list of goods receiving a 25 percent trade tariff will be decided by June 15. Earlier this month, a round of trade talks in Beijing fell through with no substantial gains. Geng Shuang, Chinese Foreign Ministry representative, stated on Thursday that China will not work on its pledge to increase the purchase of US goods if tariffs gets implemented on Chinese goods.