On April 3 (EST), the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) released List of Proposed Chinese-Made Goods for Tariffs and solicited the public opinions. The proposed list will involve approximately US$50 billion of Chinese imports with a proposed tax rate of 25%, covering 1,300 separate tariff numbers.

The US, regardless of China’s solemn protest, has released the groundless proposed tariff list. This is a typical action of unilateralism and trade protectionism which China strongly condemns and opposes.

The list released by the US has ignored the economic and trade cooperation with mutual benefit and win-win results which has been lasting for 40 years. It also disregards the voices of the industries in both countries and the interests of consumers and is against the national interests of the US, China and the global economy.

The US’ approach has seriously violated the basic principles and spirit of the WTO. China intends to immediately appeal to the WTO dispute settlement mechanism for the US’ practices. At the same time, we will prepare measures of equal strength and scale on the US products according to the relevant provisions of the Foreign Trade Law of the People's Republic of China. These measures will be announced in the near future. We are confident and capable of responding to any protectionist measures of the US.