China will give as good as it gets in trade war with United States, ambassador says
Any tariffs imposed by Washington on Chinese goods will be met with countermeasures of equal weight, Cui Tiankai says
China will respond to any new US tariffs on Chinese products with countermeasures of the “same proportion” and intensity, Beijing’s ambassador to the US said on Tuesday, as the threat of a trade war between the world’s two largest economies continues to loom large.
Cui Tiankai said China would “certainly” take retaliatory measures against the US$50 billion to US$60 billion in tariffs expected to be announced by Friday, following the United States’ “Section 301” investigation into Beijing’s intellectual property practices.
His remarks came during an interview with state-owned China Central Television and after China’s commerce ministry on Monday imposed US$3 billion worth of tariffs on 128 US products, including fruit, wine and pork. That action was taken in response to the imposition of US tariffs on steel and aluminium resulting from a separate “Section 232” investigation.
“If they do [impose new tariffs] we will certainly take countermeasures of the same proportion and of the same scale, same intensity,” Cui said.