BEIJING — China threatened on Friday to levy tariffs on $60 billion a year worth of imports from the United States if the Trump administration follows through on a vow to impose its own new tariffs on Chinese goods.
The Chinese tariffs would range from 5 percent to 25 percent, and cover 5,207 tariff categories, the country’s commerce ministry said in a statement on its website.
Beijing issued the new threat just two days after President Trump ordered his administration to consider increasing the rate of tariffs it has already proposed on $200 billion a year of Chinese goods — everything from chemicals to handbags — to 25 percent from 10 percent. Those tariffs have not taken effect, and a final decision on their size and scope is not expected until next month.
China and the United States have already imposed matching tariffs on $34 billion of each others’ products. Because China sells goods each year to the United States worth nearly four times as much as it buys, China cannot threaten tariffs on the same value of goods as the United States can. China simply does not buy that much from the United States.
But Chinese officials have hinted in recent weeks that if the United States proceeds with tariffs on a very wide range of Chinese goods, then Beijing may also retaliate against the Chinese-owned operations of big American companies. From Apple to General Motors, a long list of large American enterprises have transferred extensive operations in China and could be vulnerable.
This story will be updated.
Keith Bradsher reported from Beijing and Cao Li from Hong Kong.
