US President Donald Trump on May 3, 2019 ramped up tariffs on $200 billion (€178 billion) worth of Chinese imports, citing the slow pace of trade talks with Beijing. Chinese consumer products — including cell phones, computers, clothing and toys — are especially targeted by the tariff rate increase from 10% to 25%.
The move comes even as US and Chinese officials are in Washington to take part in talks aimed at ending a trade war between the world’s largest economies.
The increase is “a reminder that the trade negotiations have a high degree of uncertainty,” Max Zenglein, head of the economics program at Berlin’s Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS), told DW. “The underlying issue is an increasing rivalry between the US and China which goes far beyond the trade deficit.”