China announces equal penalties to retaliate for US tariffs

BEIJING — China's government said Friday it will retaliate for U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff hike on Chinese goods by immediately imposing penalties of the "same scale" on American goods.

The Commerce Ministry said it also is scrapping deals made with Washington in talks aimed at defusing a sprawling trade dispute.

A ministry statement gave no details of what U.S. goods would be affected, but China announced possible targets in April including soybeans, light aircraft, orange juice, whiskey and beef.

"The Chinese side doesn't want to fight a trade war, but facing the shortsightedness of the U.S. side, China has to fight back strongly," the statement said.

"We will immediately introduce the same scale and equal taxation measures, and all economic and trade achievements reached by the two sides will be invalidated."