After U.S. President Doanld Trump imposed 25% tariffs on Chinese import products worth USD50 billion that “contain industrially significant technologies”, China quickly retaliated by imposing its own tariffs on 659 American imports worth USD50 billion. The U.S. will impose tariffs on imports from China, including “goods related to the Made in China 2025 strategic plan to dominate the emerging high-technology industries that will drive future economic growth for China, but hurt economic growth for the United States and many other countries”, U.S. President Donald Trump said in an official White House statement. The announcement did not say when the U.S. tariffs would take effect.

Chinese tariffs on about USD34 billion of U.S. imports will start on July 6, and be applied to soybeans, corn, wheat, rice, sorghum, beef, pork, poultry, fish, dairy products, nuts and vegetables, cars and aquatic products. The effective date of the tariffs on the remaining USD16 billion of American goods will be announced later, China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said. Among those items are crude oil, natural gas, coal and some refined oil products.

The tit-for-tat action amounted to the start of a real trade war between the two countries. The Chinese government also announced that all agreements reached during several trade negotiation sessions in Beijing and Washington were now null and void. Moreover, the U.S. plans to announce investment restrictions and export controls on June 30 for Chinese persons and entities related to the acquisition of industrially significant technology, the White House said. This will escalate the trade war even further. The White House also said it will pursue additional tariffs if China takes retaliatory measures, which in the meantime it has already done. Still, some analysts believe that trade talks will soon resume. A commentary in the China Daily said that: “given the frequent flip-flopping of Trump’s administration, it is still too early to conclude that a full-blown war is underway. But China’s stance has been consistent: It welcomes dialogue but is not afraid of a trade war.”

In the run-up to the imposition of tariffs, U.S. President Donald Trump had told Fox News that “China could be a little bit upset about trade because we are very strongly clamping down.” Trump’s summit meeting with North-Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore may have emboldened him to take a harder line on China, said Daniel Russel, former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs.

In another sign of rising trade tensions, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously against a group of Chinese vitamin C producers in a long-running antitrust battle. The ruling leaves the Chinese companies, including Hebei Welcome Pharmaceutical Co, accused of colluding to fix the price and supply of their products, vulnerable to a USD148 million award in favor of the plaintiffs. China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) has called the legal moves against Chinese parties “hostile” and disrespectful” and argued that the companies involved could not at the same time follow Chinese and U.S. laws. The justices’ decision sends the case back to a federal appellate court in New York.