The U.S. is set to slap tariffs on Chinese goods on Friday as scheduled,... the first shot in a trade war between the world's two biggest economies.
And for more on this... we have our business correspondent Kim Hyesung in the studio with us today.
(Hello Hye-sung/ Hi Ji-yoon.)
So tell us more about all this trade battle.
Right.
The first shot in President Trump's trade war with China is about to be fired.
On Friday 12:01 A.M. U.S. Eastern time, Washington will start taxing 818 Chinese products, including semiconductors and airplane parts, that are worth 34 billion U.S. dollars a year.
Beijing is expected to hit back with tariffs on the same amount of U.S. goods, targeting a total of around 545 U.S. goods ranging from soybeans to pork.
The move comes after President Trump has repeatedly decried the U.S. trade deficit with China, which totaled over 375 billion dollars last year.
Following Friday's tariffs, the U.S. also plans to impose a second round of tariffs on 16 billion dollars worth of Chinese products soon, another action China has said it would respond to in kind, by imposing tariffs on U.S. products including soybeans, dairy products and automobiles....targeting American farmers, who overwhelmingly backed Trump in the 2016 election.
In total, Trump has threatened tariffs on up to 550 billion dollars of Chinese products if Beijing refuses to back down.
So, we could possibly see even more of an escalation in this trade battle.
