U.S-China Trade War: A Timeline

World’s two greatest economies seem to enter into a state of conflict, last year,with respect to the trading policies betweenthem. President Donald Trump had always accused China of its unfair trade practices and the growing trade deficit, a huge gap between the imports and exports of goods.Which implies a decreasedbase for the American market in China and more consumption of Chinese products in America.

In March 2018, U.Simposed 25 per cent and 10 per centtariffs on steel and aluminium imports. China responded by imposing tariffs on U.S goods worth $3 billion.

U.S also accused China for the violation of Intellectual property rights and threatened to impose additional 25 per cent tariff on Chinese goods worth $50 billion. Meanwhile Chinese and U.S delegations held round table talks in Beijing but could not reach any resolution.

[Intellectual property rights- A right posessed by a person or a company towards their own plans ideas or assests for a specific period of time. copyrights, patents, trade secrets are included within these rights]

The conflict escalated when Donald Trump emphasised on increasing the 10 per cent tariff to 25 per cent on Chinese goods worth $200 billion. He threatened to impose an additional tariff on goods worth $267 billion. China doesn’t seem to be giving up so readily and it retaliated by claiming to slap tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S goods.

Amidst such a heightened level of the conflict, the two leaders, Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping decided to talk. After Chinaassured to buy more U.S goods as a gesture to resolve the trade conflict. Both the leaders agreed to a 90 day trade truce, a brief hiatus for letting the two economies work on the trade pacts and neutralize the trade war,until May 1^st, 2019. Trump also postponed his threat of imposing a tariff of 25 per cent.

The latest round of talks, after the end of the trade truce, awaits as delegation from both the countries are yet to held round table talk for futher negotiation in Washington. The negotiation talks are most likely to commence from May 8th, 2019.

If the negotiations are still not made, no one is bound to emerge victorious. According to the economists, it would effect the global GDP negatively. The conflicting tariffs would affect the exports and imports from the other countries as well. IMF has criticized the onset of a trade war, indicating towards a crippling economy this year and significant effects of the economy of developing nations.