From the world’s biggest miners to German car makers and Japanese manufacturers of iridescent powder for cosmetics, producers around the world are bracing for collateral damage as the US escalates its tariff fight with China.
The Trump administration raised tariffs Friday on $200 billion of Chinese goods, sending tremors beyond the world’s two leading economies through Asia and Europe.
The increase from 10% hits thousands of Chinese products in categories as disparate as seafood, metals and machinery. Consumer products being hit are as varied as laptops, handbags and cosmetics.
Beijing has said it is weighing retaliation, which would likely target US industries including agriculture and energy.
北京方面表示正在考慮采取反制措施,矛頭可能針對農業和能源等產品。
Globalized trade means the bilateral spat is dealing a blow to economic growth world-wide. The International Monetary Fund in April reduced its growth forecast for 2019 to 3.3%, down from 3.6% last year, and said trade tensions could weigh on it further.
Countries affected by the US-China dispute include South Korea, which sends goods such as semiconductors and petrochemicals to China. Those goods are then incorporated into finished products that are shipped to the US South Korean exports, a quarter of which go to China, fell for the fifth straight month in April.
Japanese electronics companies are similarly dependent on China to assemble their components. Electronics and auto-parts maker Panasonic Corp , which has factories in China, said the trade conflict sliced about $365 million from its operating profit for the year ended March 31. The company forecasts a further $91 million in damage in the current fiscal year.