The US and China trade talks resumed last week to check in
how the Phase One agreement in February has played out. The pandemic shook the
world and the trade talks couldn’t continue since February and it was
especially hard for China to keep their end of the bargain and purchase a set
amount of US goods. With increasing tensions over Chinese apps like TikTok and
WeChat, the negotiating turf is not very ideal.
The Phase One deal shows that under the initial agreement in
early 2020, a large part of bilateral tariffs is still in place. China and the US
lowered some tariffs but have been granting exceptions to the traders on a
case-by-case basis.
The trade war was at its height in late 2019 when the US levied
tariffs of 15 percent on $300 billion and 30 percent on another $250 billion of
Chinese goods. China also retaliated by imposing a tax of 5 to 10 percent on $75
billion of American goods and 20 to 25 percent on American goods worth $110
billion.
This back and forth trade war can be traced back to 2018 when
President Trump announced tariffs on solar panels and later on steel and aluminum
for all countries. China then retaliated with tariffs of $3 billion worth of US
imports.
Take a look at the following infographic for the whole
timeline of the US-China trade war
Infographic by: statista.com
