The US president billed the step - which was considerably less severe than had initially been floated by White House officials - as the start of a major push-back against unfair trade trade practices. This would have allowed the US to impose tariffs or other trade restrictions on China under the 1974 trade act. Experts had predicted such a move could draw a “very aggressive” response from Beijing and might even cause a full-blown trade war with potentially huge global ramifications. Trump’s decision to land a far softer blow on China than expected means a trade war between the world’s top two economies now appears not to be imminent. On Monday a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said there would be “only losers in a trade war”.

Source: The Guardian August 15, 2017 02:10 UTC