The World Trade Organization has for the first time authorised China to impose punitive tariffs against the US, allowing Beijing to slap $3.6bn in levies on American goods after ruling that US duties on steel and other products were illegally inflated.
Arbitrators at the Geneva-based body on Friday said China could impose the “countermeasures” against American imports as early as this month. If taken, such an action could trigger new tensions between the world’s largest economies as they try to finalise a truce in their much broader trade war.
The decision by the WTO was delivered as US and Chinese officials are scrambling to find an alternative venue for Donald Trump, the US president, and Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, to sign their ceasefire, after the cancellation of this month’s Asia-Pacific Cooperation (Apec) meeting in Chile due to civil unrest. Among the possible options that have been considered would be for Mr Trump to join a gathering of Brics leaders in Brazil in mid-November, and for Mr Xi to visit the US, people familiar with the deliberations said. A visit by Mr Xi to the US could include a meeting in Iowa with Mr Trump.