China lists $50B of US goods it might hit with new tariff

BEIJING (AP) — China today issued a $50 billion list of U.S. goods including soybeans and small aircraft for possible tariff hikes in an escalating and potentially damaging technology dispute with Washington.

The country’s tax agency gave no date for the 25 percent increase to take effect and said it will depend on what President Donald Trump does about U.S. plans to raise duties on a similar amount of Chinese goods.

Beijing’s list of 106 products included the biggest U.S. exports to China, reflecting its intense sensitivity to the dispute over American complaints that it pressures foreign companies to hand over technology.

The clash reflects the tension between Trump’s promises to narrow a U.S. trade deficit with China that stood at $375.2 billion in goods last year and the ruling Communist Party’s development ambitions.

Regulators use access to China’s vast market as leverage to press foreign automakers and other companies to help create or improve industries and technology.

President Donald Trump says the U.S. lost a trade war with China “years ago.”

In a tweet Wednesday after China’s announcement, Trump said: “We are not in a trade war with China, that war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the U.S.”

A list the U.S. issued Tuesday of products subject to tariff hikes included aerospace, telecoms and machinery, striking at high-tech industries seen by China’s leaders as the key to its economic future.

China said it would immediately challenge the U.S. move in the World Trade Organization.