Tit-for-tat: Timeline of the escalating US-China trade dispute

By: Bloomberg News | May 03 2018 at 05:30 AM | International Trade

Years of trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies have taken a turn for the worse. Now, senior U.S. officials are in China to discuss the tariff threats from both sides, and to try and stop the conflict boiling over.

Here’s a timeline of major developments this year (in reverse chronological order).

Date	U.S. action	Chinese action	Category
5/3/2018	Trade talks start in Beijing.
4/28/2018		China objects to being on U.S. intellectual property watch list.	IP
4/27/2018	U.S. keeps China on IP priority watch list of nations which “present the most significant concerns this year regarding inadequate or ineffective IP protection or enforcement.”		IP
4/26/2018		Reported that China may cut car import tariffs by half. U.S. President Donald Trump has complained about this issue.	Market access
4/26/2018	Reported that U.S. looking into China’s Huawei Technologies Co. for possible violation of sanctions against Iran.		Commercial
4/17/2018		China announces it will collect temporary anti-dumping deposits of almost 180 percent on grain sorghum imported from the U.S., a trade worth about $1 billion in 2017.	Agriculture
4/16/2018	U.S. penalizes China’s ZTE Corp. for violating a previous agreement punishing it for doing business with Iran and North Korea. The company is banned from buying U.S. technology for seven years.		Commercial
4/10/2018		President Xi Jinping promises to open up various sectors including autos and finance	Market access
4/5/2018	President Trump issues statement that says “in light of China’s unfair retaliation” for his initial tariffs, he instructed the government to consider an addition $100 billion in tariffs.		Section 301 action on IP protection
4/5/2018		China complains to the World Trade Organization about newly imposed U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.	Section 232 action on metals tariffs
4/4/2018	U.S. responds to China’s WTO complaint on the section 301 tariffs, calling it baseless.		IP
4/4/2018		China complains to WTO about the section 301 tariff action by the U.S.	IP
4/4/2018		China says it will levy an additional 25 percent tariff on imports of 106 U.S. products including soybeans, automobiles, chemicals and aircraft, in response to proposed American duties on its high-tech goods.	IP
4/3/2018	The U.S. releases a list dominated by high-tech industrial products as targets for proposed tariffs on $50 billion worth of imports. This is aimed at recouping losses from China’s alleged abuse of intellectual property.		IP
4/2/2018		China says it will start levying tariffs on $3 billion of U.S. imports including fresh fruits, nuts, wine and pork.	Metals tariffs
Early April	Senior Chinese official Liu He tells other officials that trade talks between the two parties broke down after the U.S. demanded that China curtail support for high-technology industries.	Beijing had offered to cut the bilateral trade deficit by $50 billion.	IP
3/27/2018	U.S. releases text of Section 301 report on China.		IP
3/23/2018		China unveils tariffs on $3 billion of U.S. imports in response to steel and aluminum tariffs .	Metals tariffs
3/23/2018	US complains to WTO about Chinese protection of IP.		IP
3/22/2018	In response to what it terms “China’s unfair trade practices” related to technology transfer, IP, and innovation, the U.S. proposes tariffs, and says it will complain to the WTO and look at restricting investment from China.		IP
3/9/2018	Trump signs tariffs on imported steel and aluminum from all nations, including China.		Metals tariffs
2/4/2018		China starts a one-year anti-subsidy investigation into sorghum imported from the U.S.	Agriculture
1/22/2018	U.S. imposes safeguard tariffs on washing machine and solar cell imports. While much of these imports don’t come from China, the statement makes clear that Chinese dominance of the global supply chain was a concern.

For ease of understanding, we’ve cut the anti-dumping and countervailing duties the U.S. has imposed on on things like aluminum foil, steel pipes, rubber bands and flanges, to focus on the main points of the dispute.