China threatens to retaliate if Trump slaps more tariffs

China has threatened to retaliate if US President Donald Trump raises tariffs on  200 billion US dollars worth of goods ahead of the crucial 11th round of talks aimed at ending the trade war between the two countries.

In a late-night announcement yesterday, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said it would launch retaliatory measures in kind. It also expressed regret over the planned measures by the US to raise tariffs on imported Chinese products.

The talks are due to be held today and tomorrow in Washington between trade delegations of the two countries.   Washington maintains that



Beijing is backtracking from consensus reached on key issues in the earlier rounds of talks.

Ahead of the talks, US President Donald Trump had said that he would raise tariffs on  200 billion US dollars worth of Chinese goods from 10 per cent to 25 per cent as of May 10th to pile up pressure on China to conclude the talks to end the trade war at the earliest.

The US and China are locked in a trade war since Trump imposed heavy tariffs on imported steel and aluminium items from China in March last year. In response, China imposed tit-for-tat tariffs on billions of dollars worth of American imports.