Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross earlier this month met with Chinese officials in Beijing and brought back a Chinese proposal to purchase about $70 billion worth of additional commodities and manufactured goods. President Donald Trumpapproved tariffs on about $50 billion of Chinese goods, people familiar with the decision said, as the U.S. ratchets up its trade fight with Beijing over China’s alleged pressure on U.S. firms to transfer technology to Chinese partners. "We just announced very big tariffs today on China because China has been, you know, look, he is my friend, President Xi, he is a great man and a wonderful guy but at some point, we have to straighten it out. China has hit back at Donald Trump's decision to impose tariffs on $50bn (£37bn) worth of its goods by responding in kind as the tit-for-tat trade war heats up. On veiling the tariffs yesterday, Trump said: "In light of China’s theft of intellectual property and technology and its other unfair trade practices, the US will implement a 25 per cent tariff on $50bn of goods from China that contain industrially significant technologies.
China responds with an additional tariff of 25% on $34 billion of U.S. goods, to come into effect on July 6, and tariffs on other goods to be announced at a later date.