By Colleen Howe and Liz Lee
BEIJING, Feb 24 (Reuters) – China is closely monitoring U.S. policies and will decide “in due course” whether to adjust countermeasures to U.S. tariffs, a commerce ministry official said on Tuesday after President Donald Trump said he would levy a new temporary tariff of 15% on U.S. imports from all countries.
China is willing to hold frank consultations during an upcoming sixth round of U.S.-China economic and trade talks, the commerce ministry official added.
“China has consistently opposed all forms of unilateral tariff measures and urges the U.S. side to cancel unilateral tariffs and refrain from further imposing such tariffs,” the official said.
Trump’s latest announcement came after the Supreme Court on Friday struck down tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act on goods shipped to the U.S.
Imports from China had been subject to 20% tariffs under the act.
Trump said after the decision that he would put a new 10% duty on U.S. imports from all countries, under Section 122 of the Trade Act, then said in a Truth Social post later that he would raise it to 15%.
Other duties on Chinese goods under legislation known as Section 301 and Section 232 remain in place.
China had last year retaliated to Trump’s tariff war with multiple rounds of counter duties on American goods, including targeted levies on agricultural commodities and in energy.
Beijing also leveraged its dominance in rare earths to restrict exports of highly sought after critical minerals.
China then suspended most of those retaliatory measures in November after both countries reached a trade truce.
Trump plans to travel to China from March 31 to April 2 for highly anticipated talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping – a visit announced by the White House just before the Supreme Court decision dealt a stinging blow to Trump’s global trade war.
(Reporting by Liz Lee, Colleen Howe and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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