China announced Friday that it will impose a 34 per cent tariff on imports of all US products beginning April 10, part of a flurry of retaliatory measures following US President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” slate of double-digit tariffs.
The new tariff matches the rate of the US "reciprocal" tariff of 34 per cent on Chinese exports that Trump ordered this week, AP reports.
The Commerce Ministry in Beijing also said in a notice that it will impose more export controls on rare earths, which are materials used in high-tech products such as computer chips and electric vehicle batteries.
Included in the list of minerals subject to controls were samarium and its compounds, which are used in aerospace manufacturing and the defence sector. Another element called gadolinium is used in MRI scans.
China's customs administration said it had suspended imports of chicken from some US suppliers after detected furazolidone, a drug banned in China, in shipments from those companies.
Separately, it said had found high levels of mold in the sorghum and salmonella in poultry meat from some of the companies. The announcements affect one company exporting sorghum, C&D Inc., and four poultry companies.
Additionally, the Chinese government said it had added 27 firms to lists of companies subject to trade sanctions or export controls.
Among them, 16 are subject to a ban on the export of “dual-use” goods. High Point Aerotechnologies, a defense tech company, and Universal Logistics Holding, a publicly traded transportation and logistics company, were among those listed.
Beijing also announced it filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization over the tariffs issue.
“The United States’ imposition of so-called ‘reciprocal tariffs’ seriously violates WTO rules, seriously damages the legitimate rights and interests of WTO members, and seriously undermines the rules-based multilateral trading system and international economic and trade order,” the Commerce Ministry said.
“It is a typical unilateral bullying practice that endangers the stability of the global economic and trade order. China firmly opposes this,” it said.