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US Tariffs On China Infuriate EU Trade Chief, ‘Trade Wars … Are Not Easy To Win’

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Joshua Gill Religion Reporter
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The European trade commissioner decried the increase in U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports that President Donald Trump announced Monday, calling them an “unfortunate escalation.”

Trump announced that the U.S. will impose 10 percent tariffs on approximately $200 billion worth of Chinese imports and threatened to impose “tariffs on approximately $267 billion of additional imports” should China retaliate. China’s commerce ministry responded that it had no choice but to retaliate. European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, meanwhile, lambasted the new U.S. tariffs, saying that a trade war was not the solution to what the Trump administration characterized as “numerous unfair policies relating to U.S. technology and intellectual property.” (RELATED: US Trade Deficit With China Reaches Highest Level On Record In August)

“Trade wars are not good and they are not easy to win, and this escalation is of course very unfortunate,” Malmstrom said, according to Reuters.

“We agree with some of the criticism that the U.S. has voiced vis-a-vis China on some of their policies, and we are trying to address some of it via the WTO. But we disagree with the methods that the U.S. is using to try to get China to adopt using tariffs.”

Trump, however, said in a statement from the White House concerning the new tariffs that imposing the tariffs was part of his duty to protect the economic interests of the U.S.

“As president, it is my duty to protect the interests of working men and women, farmers, ranchers, businesses, and our country itself. My administration will not remain idle when those interests are under attack,” Trump said, adding that he urged China’s leaders to “end their country’s unfair trade practices.”

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