New Trump tariff threat drowns global markets in sea of red

Dubai - China vows to retaliate to new US tactic, which adds to long list of squabbles America has with trade partners

US President Donald Trump said he would impose a 10 per cent tariff on the remaining $300 billion of Chinese imports as tensions with China spiked again, the latest salvo in a yearlong trade war between the world's two largest economies.
The levies, due to begin on September 1, would hit a wide range of consumer goods and came the day after trade talks wrapped up in Shanghai, yielding little progress.
Trump's statements on Thursday sent the benchmark S&P 500 lower and crude oil tumbling.

Tariffs have disrupted international supply lines, roiled global financial markets and encouraged manufacturers to invest in plants outside China. It is impossible to calculate the precise costs, as many companies do not detail the reasons for changes in their business models or manufacturing locations, nor disclose the financial costs of the trade war.
Fitch Ratings estimates that extending tariffs to cover another $300 billion worth of Chinese goods would chop 0.4 per cent from global economic output.
The International Monetary Fund said last month that global trade in the first quarter of 2019 was the slowest since 2012, noting big downside risks for world growth moving forward.
American farmers have been among the hardest hit so far.
China is the top market for many of their biggest crops and Beijing hit those crops with retaliatory tariffs. The Chinese tariffs targeted US farmers because they helped vote Trump into power. The trade war has hurt sales of a wide range of agricultural produce, including fresh fruit, meat and grains. The single-biggest agricultural export from the US are soyabeans, most of which went to China before the trade war.
Tariffs are costing the US tech sector $1.3 billion a month, the Consumer Technology Association said in a written statement to the United States Trade Representative in June. Products for 5G mobile technology were hit by $122 million of tariffs in the month of October 2018 alone, surging from just $65,000 a year earlier, the trade group said.
Trump's steel and aluminium tariffs have added billions of dollars to the cost of assembling US vehicles, and tariffs on Chinese-made parts have also hiked costs. General Motors, the largest automaker in the US, has projected it will incur $1 billion in extra costs for tariffs and raw materials. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has said it expects dramatically increased costs for commodities due to tariffs, costing the automaker $832.50 million.
Retaliation
The US has picked fights with trade partners, most notably China, which has retailated in kind.
On Friday, Beijing, again, vowed to hit back.
"China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition to this," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular press briefing. "If the US implements the tariff measures, China will have to take necessary counter-measures to resolutely defend the core interests of the country and its people," Hua said, adding that Beijing did not want a trade war "but is not afraid to fight one if necessary".
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, meanwhile, demurred on Friday when asked if Trump would delay or stop the imposition of tariffs on $300 billion worth of Chinese goods if China took some positive actions. "I have not heard anything definitive," Kudlow said in an interview with Fox Business Network. "The president's not satisfied with the progress on the trade deal," Kudlow said.
Markets crash
Global equities were in a sea of red on Friday in the fallout to Trump's announcement.
The pan-European Stoxx dropped 2 per cent in its sharpest daily tumble of 2019. The trade-sensitive DAX and France's CAC 40 dropped 2.7 per cent, the former hitting a two-month lows. London's FTSE 100 slipped 1.7 per cent.
In Asia, the Shanghai Composite lost 1.4 per cent while Tokyo's Nikkei 225 declined 2.1 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 2.4 per centwhile Seoul's Kospi shed 1 per cent. Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 retreated 0.3 per cent. India's Sensex bucked the trend, closing up 0.27 per cent.