The whole ordeal started in March last year. The two elephants chose to get into a fight (well, a war) over trade finance by imposing tariffs on each other to protect their local industry. Since then the two sides have not been reluctant in imposing tariffs on each other’s products worth hundreds-of-billions-of-dollars. This step led to more protectionist trade policies as promised earlier by Trump. The decision later triggered retaliation from other countries let China alone.
Here is a timeline of what has happened so far:
The first week of March’18: President Donald Trump announced that the US would impose tariffs on aluminum and steel imports. He said, “We’re going to build our steel industry back; we’re going to build our aluminum industry back.” He announced 25% tariffs for steel and 10% for all aluminum imports effective from the following week.
The tariffs were higher than 24% and 7% recommended by the commerce department. Trump insisted on 25% because it was a “round number.”
March 22, 2018: This did not stop here; President Trump announced tariffs on billions of dollars of Chinese imports. This move was later deemed to have triggered the trade war between the two economic powers.
The Trump government imposed tariffs on $50 billion worth of goods. The list included imports from industries including robotics, rail equipment, and biopharmaceuticals. This move will also limit Chinese investments in the US.
Chinese officials condemned this step and announced tariff imposition on agricultural products like soybeans and hogs. Almost 50% of the US’s soybean exports go to China. This definitely was a sharp blow.
The first week of April 2018: On 3rd April’18, the Trump administration released a tentative list of imports from China. A 25% tariff was imposed on them. The list included products like raw materials, electronics, medical devices, agricultural equipment, construction machinery, and consumer bottled and jarred packaged goods.
China didn’t come slow this time. They announced retaliatory measures on the next day. The State TV in China reported that Beijing plans to impose 25% tariffs on over 100 US products with a trading value of $50 billion. President Trump responded in a tweet by saying that the US was not in a trade war with China.
This squabble was very costly for the global markets as stock markets were crashing.
May 21st, 2018: The stock markets welcomed Trump’s announcement of touting a trade deal with China, positively. President Trump claimed to have struck a trade deal with the Chinese government to reduce trade tensions between the two most complex economies of the world.
The trade deal involved US putting a halt on the tariffs (it put on China as a penalty to possibly stealing the US intellectual property). These tariffs were suspended and can be imposed again. Whereas China agreed to purchase additional US agricultural products, until then. The markets reacted favorably by seeing an uprising of 360 points by mid-morning.
May 29th, 2018: On the next Tuesday the White House almost wrecked the deal by announcing that they would go ahead with the tariffs and restrictions on China. The final list was published in mid-June. The trade tensions between the two countries worsened because of this announcement.
The White House confirmed restrictions such as those on Chinese investment into the US. They also announced filing a case with WTO against China, accusing it of stealing US’s intellectual property by forced partnerships. Moreover, they confirmed imposing tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, mostly belonging to the importance of information technology and high-growth industries.
June of 2018: This time the US went into an all-out trade war with China by asking Trade Representative’s office to draw out a list of Chinese goods worth $200 billion to impose another 10% tariff on them. Trump justified that the new tariff will take effect if China didn’t remove sanctions on US goods. Trump threatened that this war will go on if China doesn’t address the theft of US intellectual property by their companies.
China retaliated with an equivalent set of tariffs and sanctions and still urged the US to not start the trade war. The Chinese government urged all the other countries to support them in avoiding this age-old regressive behavior.
August of 2018: The month began with the US threatening China of doubling the tariff rate imposed on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, from 10% to 25%. China later responded by saying that it will implement various tariff rates on another $60 billion worth of US goods if they proceed with this threat.
On August 23rd the US imposed tariffs on $16 billion worth of Chinese goods and China responded with the same, imposing tariffs on $16 billion worth of US goods.
September 17, 2018: The US imposed tariffs on Chinese goods worth $200 billion, where the tariff rate was scheduled to increase from 10% to 25% in January. Trump said in a statement that they have given China every opportunity to treat the US more fairly but China has failed to show any willingness to comply.
December 2018: The two leaders sat at the G20 summit in Argentina and came to a trade truce, delaying the US tariff escalation until March. Whereas, a couple of days later, Trump tweeted that he is still into Tariffs and a truce will only take place if it is in the best interests of the US.
February 24’2019: A series of negotiations took place between the US and Chinese officials only to announce that the tariff escalation by the US will be delayed indefinitely.
May of 2019: May has been the most happening month in the entire timeline. The month began with the US accusing China of not abiding by the trade agreements and threatened it to place duties in another $300 billion worth of Chinese products. Negotiations stalled, US escalated tariffs from 10% to 25% on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods with a 3-4 week deadline to strike a deal. China retaliated by imposing tariffs on $60 billion worth of US products.
Author Bio:
Sean Williamson lives in New York City and calls himself the ‘tech-bro’, given his special interest in everything that’s digital. Besides writing for major technological sites in the spare time, he likes to stay on top of the latest developments, especially in the field of smartphone tech. He works as a writer in a company like Cox Communications
