The daily business briefing: August 23, 2018

New tariffs kick in as U.S.-China trade war escalates, Disney offers to pay tuition for thousands of hourly workers, and more

1. U.S., China enact new tariffs, escalating trade war

The Trump administration and China went through with a scheduled escalation of their trade war on Thursday, imposing 25 percent tariffs on $16 billion worth of each other's goods. The tit-for-tat tariffs between the world's two largest economies now have extended to $100 billion of products since July. China's Commerce Ministry said Washington was "remaining obstinate" by moving forward with the tariffs. "China resolutely opposes this, and will continue to take necessary countermeasures," it said in a brief statement. Beijing also said it would file a complaint over the new tariffs with the World Trade Organization. Mid-level officials from the two countries resumed trade talks in Washington. Despite the new levies, global stock markets were mostly higher on Thursday. U.S. stock futures were flat.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.