China promises to retaliate as necessary after Trump threatens tariffs

China’s Ministry of Commerce said Friday that “firmly” opposes “the president of the United States Donald TrumpThe last threat of increasing tariffs on Chinese products and promised reprisals if necessary.

“If the United States insists on its way, China will take all the necessary countermeasures to defend their legitimate rights and interests,” said a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce in a statement, translated by CNBC.

“We urge the American side not to repeat their own mistakes and return as soon as possible to the right path to resolve conflicts properly through dialogue on equal conditions,” he said.

The statement followed Trump’s announcement on Thursday that the United States impose an additional duty of 10% to Chinese imports As of March 4. That coincides with the beginning of China annual parliamentary meetings.

The new tariffs would go to additional 10% rates that Trump raised in China on February 4.

Trump announced the two rounds of China tariffs on the role of the country in the fentanyl trade. The addictive drug, precursors that occur mainly in China and Mexico, has taken tens of thousands of overdose deaths every year in the United States.

“In the short term, China’s response will probably include raising tariffs on selected US imports.

But he hopes that Beijing reprisals will probably remain “measures”, since Chinese President Xi Jinping has an incentive to meet with his US counterpart and start negotiations to avoid measures that exert greater pressure on growth.

China exports have been a weird brilliant point in an economy otherwise. The United States is the largest commercial partner in China at a single country.

While Beijing can maintain a “restricted” position, the next movements will probably go to the industries that matter the most for Trump’s supporters, said Alfredo Montufar-Helu, head of the center of China at the Conference Board.

China would prefer to leave a space for new negotiations, since they hope to avoid even higher import rates and other “corrective” measures of Washington, he said.

After the first round of rates earlier this month, China’s retaliation measures included Raise tariffs of certain energy imports in the United Statesand put two American companies in a list of unreliable entities that could restrict their ability to do business in the Asian country.

China has also increased controls on critical mineral exports that the United States needs.

“The most acute arrow that China has in its laugh to restrict the access of the United States to critical minerals that cannot easily obtain in another place,” said Stephen Olson, a senior visiting fellow at the Institute of Studies of Southeast Asia and a former American commercial negotiator.

In contrast, the ministry FEBRUARY DECLARATION He urged Washington to handle fentanyl problems “objectively and rationally,” while warning the rates could damage the normal economic and commercial relations of China-United States.

The China Ministry of Foreign Affairs also harden its tone in a response to the rates on Friday. The US law of “pressing, coercing and threatening” China with tariffs will only be counterproductive, said spokesman Lin Jian in Chino, informed by state media and translated by CNBC.

The Trump announcement of additional tariffs “will push China to a position to assume that an agreement may not be possible or that it cannot be achieved in the short term,” said Deborah Elms, head of the trade policy of the Hinrich Foundation, CNBC.

“That leaves Beijing with two options: or display the continuous measures responses in the hope of avoiding greater escalation and may even reverse the existing measures; or much larger,” he added, since the “modest measures were not enough and the threat to the future climbing was not taken enough.”