China counters Trump tariffs with taxes on crude, cars and a Google investigation

China's Ministry of Commerce announced Tuesday it was implementing counter tariffs against the United States on multiple products, while announcing other trade-related measures, including an investigation into Google. This comes after Washington slapped 10 per cent levies on Chinese goods.

The Chinese government said it would implement 15 per cent tariff on coal and liquified natural gas products, as well as a 10 per cent tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery, large-displacement cars.

In addition, Chinese market regulators said they had launched an antimonopoly investigation into Google. Google is blocked from China's internet, but the move may disrupt the company's dealings with Chinese companies.


Beijing also said it had filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization "to defend its legitimate rights and interests" in response to hiked US tariffs on Chinese goods.

"China has filed a case against the US tariff measures under the WTO dispute settlement mechanism," the commerce ministry said in a statement, adding the US actions were of a "malicious nature".

“The US’s unilateral tariff increase seriously violates the rules of the World Trade Organization," the statement said. "It is not only unhelpful in solving its own problems, but also damages normal economic and trade cooperation between China and the US.”

The 10 per cent tariff that President Donald Trump ordered on China was set to go into effect Tuesday, though Trump planned to talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the next few days.

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Trump on Monday suspended his threat of 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada at the last minute, agreeing to a 30-day pause in return for concessions on border and crime enforcement with the two neighbouring countries.

But there was no such reprieve for China, with new levies coming into effect at 12:01 a.m. ET on Tuesday (0501 GMT).

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During his first term in 2018, Trump initiated a brutal two-year trade war with China over its massive U.S. trade surplus, with tit-for-tat tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods upending global supply chains and damaging the world economy.

To end that trade war, China agreed in 2020 to spend an extra $200 billion a year on U.S. goods but the plan was derailed by the COVID pandemic and its annual trade deficit had widened to $361 billion, according to Chinese customs data released last month.

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"The trade war is in the early stages so the likelihood of further tariffs is high," Oxford Economics said in a note as it downgraded its China economic growth forecast.

Trump warned he might increase tariffs on China further unless Beijing stemmed the flow of fentanyl, a deadly opioid, into the United States.

"China hopefully is going to stop sending us fentanyl, and if they're not, the tariffs are going to go substantially higher," he said on Monday.

China has called fentanyl America's problem and said it would challenge the tariffs at the World Trade Organization and take other countermeasures, but also left the door open for talks.