China’s ministry of commerce said frozen pork and scrap aluminium would be hit with a 25% tariff rate, while some fruits, nuts and wines would be subject to a 15% charge.
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The move is a direct response to Donald Trump’s decision to raise duties on steel and aluminium imports last month.
The US President - who has said “trade wars are good and easy to win” - is also planning to impose tariffs on up to $60bn (£42.7bn) of Chinese imports in a separate row over alleged intellectual property theft.
An editorial in the Global Times, a tabloid newspaper published by the Chinese Communist Party, yesterday warned a full-blown trade war could be looming.
“Even though China and the US have not publicly said they are in a trade war, the sparks of such a war have already started to fly,” it added, reports Reuters.
However, the tariffs do not cover some of the US’s biggest exports to China, such as soya beans. This is a sign, say some analysts, that Beijing wants to avoid an all-out trade war.
“The amount subject to tariff is not big, which shows China is willing to ease the intensity of the trade conflict that was started by the US,” Shi Yinhong, director of the US research centre at Renmin University in Beijing, told The Guardian.
29 March
Donald Trump hits back over second amendment threat
Donald Trump has vowed to defend the right to bear arms for Americans, after a former Supreme Court justice called for the repeal of constitutional gun protections.
Stevens, a long-time advocate of gun control, argued that repeal would weaken the National Rifle Association's ability to “block constructive gun control legislation” and would still allow individuals to own guns.
He called on students and other protesters who called for gun controls at the March for Our Lives last weekend in the wake of February’s Parkland school massacre to push for a repeal.
Trump, who has in the past called for tougher background checks and a ban on devices that allow semi-automatic rifles to fire more rapidly, hit back on Twitter:
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the administration was not considering repealing the amendment. Any change to the constitution would have to be approved by a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress, “and there have been no formal proposals for such a move”, says The New York Times. It would then need to be ratified by three-quarters of US state legislatures.
Gun control has long been one of the most divisive issues in American politics and Trump has sought to use it to gather conservative support ahead of November’s crucial mid-term elections.
However, CNN described his assertion that “we need more Republicans in 2018 and must ALWAYS hold the Supreme Court” as “a notable choice of words since the judiciary is supposed to be independent of the executive branch”.
26 March
Donald Trump and Stormy Daniels: porn star ‘physically threatened’ after alleged affair
Adult film actress Stormy Daniels has claimed she was physically threatened and told to keep quiet about her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Donald Trump.
Daniels made the claim during an interview with CBS News program 60 Minutes, saying she was approached in 2011 by a man in the car park of a Las Vegas gym as she was getting out of her car.
“A guy walked up on me and said to me, ‘Leave Trump alone. Forget the story,’” Daniels said. “And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, ‘That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom’.”
Daniels also claimed that she and Trump had only one sexual encounter, and that Trump had wooed her with the promise of an appearance on Celebrity Apprentice.
The BBC reports that Trump “strongly denies” having had an affair with Daniels, and that his lawyers are seeking $20m in damages from her, claiming she has broken “a non-disclosure deal signed before the 2016 presidential election”.
Daniels accepted a $130,000 payment from Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen days before the 2016 presidential election in return for signing the non-disclosure agreement.
Her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, now says the so-called “hush agreement” is not valid as it has not been signed by Trump. A lawsuit to have the agreement declared void has been filed in a California court.
23 March
Trump replaces McMaster as national security adviser
Donald Trump’s national security advisor, General HR McMaster, has resigned and will be replaced by former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton.
Trump announced the decision on Twitter, saying McMaster would “always remain my friend.”
CNN reports Trump and McMaster had been “discussing this for some time, and that the decision was not related to any one moment or incident, rather it was the result of ongoing conversations between the two”.
In a statement, McMaster announced he is also retiring from military service later this year, and thanked Trump for the opportunity to serve as national security advisor.
Bolton has previously publicly stated that a pre-emptive war would be the only likely way to end North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons capable of striking the US.
“We have to ask ourselves whether we’re prepared to take pre-emptive action, or live in a world where North Korea – and a lot of other people – have nuclear weapons,” he said.
Bolton has also been outspoken in his disdain for the deal struck with Iran over its nuclear weapons program, and has called for the US to withdraw from it.
Bolton’s appointment – coupled with the removal of Rex Tillerson as secretary of state – could see the US “heading toward a much more confrontational relationship with the Islamic Republic”, the BBC says.
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