US-China Trade Issues: A Timeline

Key Points

The trade dispute between the US and China has been going on for over a year. In this report, we summarize the timeline of how it progressed and its recent escalation.

• In 2018, the trade dispute fluctuated: in May, it showed a hint of truce but then worsened in June with the US announcing new tariffs on 818 categories of goods from China, and China responding with tariffs on 545 categories of US imports.
• In late 2018, there was a 90-day truce, but that fell apart and in early 2019 unsuccessful negotiations triggered an escalation. In May 2019, the US increased tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods from 10% to 25% and China responded by increasing tariffs on $60 billion worth of US goods effective June 1.
• Now, more than 2,000 items have been affected by China’s tariffs, including beef, lamb, pork, vegetables, seasoning, juice, cooking oil, tea, coffee, refrigerators, textiles, furniture and technology.