BEIJING—China has increased tariffs by up to 25 percent on 128 U.S. products, from frozen pork and wine to certain fruits and nuts in response to U.S. duties on imports of aluminum and steel.
The tariffs, to take effect on Monday, were announced late on Sunday by China’s finance ministry and matched a list of potential tariffs on up to $3 billion in U.S. goods published by China on March 23.
China’s Ministry of Commerce said it was suspending its obligations to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to reduce tariffs on 120 U.S. goods, including fruit and ethanol. The tariffs on those products will be raised by an extra 15 percent.
Eight other products, including pork and scrap aluminum, will now be subject to additional tariffs of 25 percent, it said, with the measures effective from April 2.
U.S. President Donald Trump is separately preparing to impose tariffs of more than $50 billion on Chinese goods intended to punish Beijing over U.S. accusations that China systematically misappropriated American intellectual property.
China has repeatedly promised to open its economy further, but many foreign companies continue to complain of unfair treatment.
China warned the United States on Thursday not to open a Pandora’s Box and spark a flurry of protectionist practices across the globe.
Soon after the announcement, an editorial in the state-run tabloid Global Times warned that if the U.S. had thought China would not retaliate or would only take symbolic counter-measures, it can now “say goodbye to that delusion.”
“Even though China and the U.S. have not publicly said they are in a trade war, the sparks of such a war have already started to fly,” the editorial said.
Reaction to China’s measures varied on Chinese social media, with some saying Chinese customers would be the one ultimately paying for the trade war.
“Why not directly target soybean and planes? The tariffs that China announced today don’t sound a lot to me,” said a user on Weibo, a Twitter-like microblog popular in China.
Aircraft and soybeans were China’s biggest U.S. imports by value last year.
