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China threatens retaliation if US tariff hikes go ahead

Published:Friday | August 16, 2019 | 11:26 AM
In this July 4, 2019, photo, Chinese magazines with front covers featuring Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump on trade war are placed for sale at a roadside bookstand in Hong Kong. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

BEIJING (AP) — China has threatened retaliation if Washington steps up their war over trade and technology by going ahead with planned September 1 tariff hikes on additional Chinese imports.

Beijing will take unspecified “necessary countermeasures,” the Cabinet said in a one-sentence statement.

It gave no details or any indication plans for trade talks in Washington in September might be affected.

The mounting tension has unnerved financial markets that worry the global economy will tip into recession.

President Donald Trump says he plans to impose 10% duties on an additional $300 billion of Chinese imports, extending penalties to almost everything the United States buys from China.

The Chinese announcement made no mention of Trump’s decision Wednesday to postpone penalties on about 60% of those goods until December 15.

Among the products given a reprieve are mobile phones, laptops, video game consoles, some toys, computer monitors, shoes and clothing.

Trade between the two biggest global economies has plunged, battering suppliers of goods from medical equipment to soybeans and threatening job losses. 

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