(Apr 4): China said it would levy 25% tariffs on imports of 106 US products including soybeans, automobiles, chemicals and aircraft, in response to proposed American duties on its high-tech goods.

Matching the scale of proposed US tariffs announced Tuesday, the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing said the charges will apply to around US$50 billion of US imports. The step ratchets up tension in a brewing trade war between the world&rsquo s two largest trading nations, with the Trump administration&rsquo s latest offensive based on alleged infringements of intellectual property in China.

In a statement released Wednesday, China&rsquo s envoy to the WTO, Zhang Xiangchen, said that a list of planned charges on more than 1,300 product categories focused on its industrial machinery and technology exports was " an intentional and gross violation of the WTO&rsquo s fundamental principles of non-discrimination and bound tariffs."

In deciding which products to hit, US officials on Tuesday identified product lines that the US Trade Representative&rsquo s office says benefit unfairly from government industrial policies, including Beijing&rsquo s Made in China 2025 plan to dominate key strategic technologies.

In targeting sectors that Beijing is openly trying to promote, the US is signalling that its strategic aim in the current conflict is preventing China from gaining the global technological leadership that it wants. That has provoked anger in China, while analysts voiced doubt that the tariffs will succeed in changing Beijing&rsquo s behaviour.

The tariffs may have only a minor economic impact, increasing levies by US$12.5 billion on Chinese shipments to the US that reached US$506 billion last year, said Shane Oliver, the head of investment strategy at AMP Capital Investors Ltd. in Sydney. That&rsquo s an average tariff increase on overall imports from China of just 2.5%, he said.

" The main risk is that China&rsquo s response leads to a counter retaliation by the US and a process of escalating tariffs that leads to a sharp slowing in trade between the two countries," said Oliver.