Coming on the heels of the brewing tension between China and the US regarding auto imports and tariffs, China answered with a tirade of its own; it has since raised anti-dumping duties on US optical fiber sevenfold, good for a 33.3 percent rise in tax duties.
The previous amount before Wednesday's duty adjustment ranged from around 4.7 percent to a high of 18.6 percent. Business Standard says that it will hike all the way in the neighborhood of 33.3 percent to 78.2 percent, a rather extreme amount by any standards-and, perhaps, a justified reaction to the tariffs imposed in the first place by the US.
The tariffs were actually primed from the start, a reactionary imposition in the case of heavier penalties from the US. According to Bloomberg's report back in August 2017, China was already reviewing measures against the US and the European Union. It was instigated by the increased dumping of the US and EU of their optical fiber products. However, China insisted then on keeping to the tariffs first introduced in 2011, which ranged from 4.7 percent to 29.1 percent.
The optical fiber is a much sought-after product in China and in the region. It is used primarily in the telecommunications industry and, as a huge player in Asia, it's natural for China to invest heavily in importing high-quality optic fiber.
Back then, Yang Rongzhen, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics, called it everything but a 'trade war.'
A year later, it seems that the war has already progressed past the beginning. The US companies to reel from the latest series of tariffs, Reuters states, are Corning Inc, Draka Communications Americas Inc, and OFS Fitel, LLC. It was earlier reported that Chinese companies hurting from the US own trade tariffs are mostly automobile makers, including upstart tech company Tesla.
It seems that push comes to shove. China actually reviewed whether to raise tariffs or not in April and August last year. They came to a decision to keep tariffs at its 2011 values pending a review on whether the US and EU have actually increased their dumping.
