Beijing/Washington — The US and China exchanged the first salvos on Friday in what could become a long trade war, slapping tariffs on $34Bn worth of each others’ goods and giving no sign of willingness to start talks aimed at reaching a truce. Duties on a range of Chinese goods imported into the US took effect on Friday and were immediately countered by measures from China, with Beijing accusing the US of triggering the "largest-scale trade war". The escalating fight between the world’s two biggest economies meant it could "take economic and political pain to get these two parties to the table", said Scott Kennedy, head of China studies at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. President Donald Trump is already threatening additional rounds of tariffs, possibly targeting more than $500bn worth of Chinese goods — roughly the total amount of US imports from China in 2017. It will take weeks or months for the US trade representative to review and possibly act...
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