By Reuters
BEIJING, March 4 (Reuters) - China on Tuesday swiftly retaliated against fresh U.S. tariffs, announcing 10%-15% hikes to import levies covering a range of American agricultural and food products, moving the world's top two economies a step closer toward an all-out trade war.
Beijing also placed twenty-five U.S. firms under export and investment restrictions on national security grounds, but refrained from punishing any household names, as it did when it retaliated against the Trump administration's February 4 tariffs.
Ten of these 25 U.S. firms were targeted by China for selling arms to Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory.
China's latest retaliatory tariffs came as the extra 10% duty U.S. President Donald Trump threatened China with last week entered into force at 0501 GMT on March 4, resulting in a cumulative 20% tariff in response to what the White House considers Chinese inaction over drug flows.
China has accused the U.S. of fentanyl blackmail and it has some of the toughest anti-drug policies in the world.
Analysts have said Beijing still hoped to negotiate a truce with the Trump administration, but the tit-for-tat retaliatory tariffs threaten to escalate into an all-out trade war between the two economic giants.
The new U.S. tariffs represent an additional hike to preexisting levies on thousands of Chinese goods.
Some of these products bore the brunt of sharply higher U.S. tariffs under former president Joe Biden last year, including a doubling of duties on Chinese semiconductors to 50% and a quadrupling of tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles to over 100%.
The 20% tariff will apply to several major U.S. consumer electronics imports from China that were previously untouched, including smartphones, laptops, videogame consoles, smartwatches, speakers and Bluetooth devices.
China responded immediately after the deadline, announcing it will impose an additional 15% tariff on U.S. chicken, wheat, corn and cotton and an extra 10% levy on U.S. soybeans, sorghum, pork, beef, aquatic products, fruits and vegetables and dairy imports from March. 10, the finance ministry announced in a statement.
"The U.S.'s unilateral tariffs measures seriously violate World Trade Organization rules and undermine the basis for economic and trade cooperation between China and the U.S.," China's commerce ministry said in a separate statement.
"China will firmly safeguard its legitimate rights and interests," the statement added.
(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Lincoln Feast and Shri Navaratnam)
