CHINA/TARIFFS/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Beijing retaliated against planned U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods by targeting high-value American exports—including farm products, cars, and crude oil—stepping up the potential for a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. Shortly after the Trump administration unveiled plans Friday to impose tariffs of 25% on $50 billion in Chinese products, China’s State Council announced it would levy penalties of the same rate on the U.S. goods of the same value. The U.S. is ‘provoking the trade war,’ China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Friday, while pledging to defend the country’s interests. In striking back at the U.S. action, China expanded the list of U.S. products that would be subject to tariffs to 659 types of goods, from some 106 types it originally disclosed in April. Most of the added goods on China’s retaliatory list are agricultural, seafood and energy products. President Donald Trump said earlier Friday that the U.S. will respond with more tariffs if China retaliates. Beijing is imposing the tariffs in two steps as Washington is doing—picking the same amounts and same dates the U.S. is choosing.”
-Bob Davis and Lingling Wei, “China Issues Retaliatory Tariffs as Trade Fight Heats Up,” The Wall Street Journal, June 15, 2018 3:39 pm