Trump Is Said to Approve Tariffs on $50 Billion of Chinese Goods

(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump has approved tariffs on Chinese goods worth about $50 billion, said a person familiar with the decision, ratcheting up a confrontation on trade that’s set to prompt retaliation from Beijing.

The Trump administration is preparing to release a refined list of Chinese products to be hit with tariffs that hones in on technologies where China wants to establish itself as a leader, according to five people familiar with the matter. In April, the U.S. revealed an initial list targeting about 1,300 products worth $50 billion in Chinese imports.

The U.S. is scheduled on Friday to release an updated list of Chinese tariff targets. The White House has said the duties will be implemented “shortly” after the release of Friday’s list, though no date has been set.

Trump said this week he’ll confront China “very strongly” over trade in the coming weeks. “China could be a little bit upset about trade because we are very strongly clamping down on trade,” the president said in a Fox News interview on Wednesday.

China has pledged a tit-for-tat response. In April, it said it would levy 25 percent tariffs on imports of 106 U.S. products including soybeans, automobiles, chemicals and aircraft, in response to proposed American duties.

The trade tensions — simmering ever since Trump became president — appear set to escalate at an inopportune time for China’s economy. A trio of downbeat readings on Thursday and a slump in new credit growth reported earlier in the week suggest the world’s second-largest economy is already losing some momentum.

“A slowing China will add to the challenges for the global economy,” said Louis Kuijs, chief Asia economist at Oxford Economics in Hong Kong and a former International Monetary Fund researcher. “Until recently, the resilience of growth in China was an important buffer for the global economy in the face of headwinds from trade friction, slower growth in Europe, higher oil prices and issues in various emerging markets.”

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