Photo“The upshot is that today’s tariffs amount to no more than a slap on the wrist for China,” Mr. Williams wrote in a note. Another round of tariffs could be imposed on a second group of American-made goods after China evaluates the impact of the American trade measures against China. But there are many ways that China, America’s biggest foreign creditor and its third-largest export market, could intensify its response. That is roughly equivalent to the $2.79 billion worth of steel and aluminum that China exported to the United States last year, according to Commerce Department data. Mr. Song characterized China’s response as “cautious anger.”That may not last for long, as the trade dispute between Washington and Beijing widens.

Source: New York Times March 23, 2018 16:05 UTC