Trump announces tariffs targeting $50 billion in Chinese imports

Follows his pledge to punish alleged theft of U.S. intellectual property, warns tit-for-tat action will invite more tariffs..

U.S. President Donald Trump with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. (FILE)

United States President Donald Trump on Friday announced tariffs of 25 per cent targeting $50 billion in Chinese imports, making good on a pledge to punish alleged theft of U.S. intellectual property.

The announcement is sure to spark countermeasures by Beijing, which has vowed to retaliate, bringing the world's two largest economies to the brink of an all-out trade war long feared by markets and industry.

'We are losing our technology to unfair practices'

However, in a statement, Mr. Trump warned of “additional tariffs” should China hit back with tit-for-tat duties on U.S. goods and services exports.

“The United States can no longer tolerate losing our technology and intellectual property through unfair economic practices,” he said in the statement.

“These tariffs are essential to preventing further unfair transfers of American technology and intellectual property to China, which will protect American jobs.”

The announcement caps months of sometimes fraught shuttle diplomacy between Washington and Beijing, in which Chinese offers failed to assuage Mr. Trump's grievances over the soaring U.S.-China trade imbalance.

China is not alone in this

But Mr. Trump's China trade offensive is only one side of his multi-front trade confrontation with all major U.S. economic partners.

Mr. Trump outraged Canadian, Mexican and European leaders last month by imposing punishing tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum to protect American producers from allegedly unfair competition.

The Trump administration on Friday was also due to release a finalised list of Chinese goods that will face the tariffs.

U.S. officials have said Beijing has sought industrial dominance in the emerging technologies through the theft of American know-how through forced technology transfers, hacking and other forms industrial espionage..