China has announced the imposition of commercial tariffs on a set of 128 US products, due to the measures announced by the United States last month on imports of Chinese steel and aluminum, according to the “Agência Brasil” . A set of 120 products, including fruit, nuts and wine, will have a tariff of 15%, while pig and related products will have 25%, according to a statement from the Ministry of Commerce.
The measure, which comes into force today, is a response to US tariffs of 25% on steel imports and 15% on aluminum imports from China. In a separate statement, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce called on the United States to withdraw its measures against Chinese steel and aluminum, which Beijing said violated World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.
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China had already announced on March 23 that it would impose such tariffs if the US went ahead with its plans to tax imports of steel and aluminum from the Asian giant. Even so, Beijing has always insisted that it wanted to avoid a trade war and warned the US government not to open “a Pandora’s box.”