Global Geopolitical Series: Sino-U.S. trade war officially begins

President Trump has already fired shots targeting all countries around the world with his Steel import tariff of 25 percent and Aluminum import tariff of 10 percent, this is the first time his administration has fired shots directed to any particular country.

So far, in this trade dispute, President Trump has shown that he is a man of his word and as promised, the first tranche of U.S. tariffs went live at 12:01`am Friday on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods. China recently adjusted the timing as the Time Zone was making the strike first for China. And as promised by the Chinese side, China has responded in kind to U.S. tariffs after the U.S. struck first.

Next week, the second tranche of tariffs would on another $16 billion worth of goods from each other, and as of now, there are no signs of any progress in the negotiations between the two. President Trump has so far announced the possibility of tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods but that number could go even higher as the Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross suggested $450 billion.

Though, China doesn’t have the leverage on goods as U.S. imports is much bigger but it can retaliate in other ways by dumping U.S. treasuries in the market or by higher taxing U.S. tech companies in China, which are making billions of dollars in China.