BEIJING: China said on Monday it had lodged a complaint against the United States with the World Trade Organisation (WTO), one day after new tariffs imposed by Washington on billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods came into force.

The world’s two biggest economies have been embroiled in a bruising year-long trade war which escalated further on Sunday when Washington moved ahead with fresh levy hikes which Beijing had promised to match.

“These American tariffs seriously violate the consensus reached by the leaders of our two countries in Osaka,” Beijing’s commerce ministry said, referring to trade discussions in the Japanese city in June.

“The Chinese side is strongly dissatisfied and resolutely opposed to that.

In accordance with relevant WTO rules, China will firmly safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” the ministry added in a statement published on its website.

Washington’s latest levies on imports from China took effect under a stepped-up high-pressure campaign aimed at compelling Beijing to sign a new trade deal.

President Donald Trump launched his trade war in March 2018, demanding that China end practices widely seen as unfair, such as forced technology transfers from US firms and the massive subsidies given to Chinese enterprises. The additional 15pc tariffs affected a portion of the $300bn in goods from China that so far had been spared.

Beijing has said it would retaliate by targeting $75 billion in US goods, beginning in part on September 1.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2019