The White House has announced plans for a 25 per cent tariff on steel imports, and a 10 per cent aluminium tariff, neither of which are expected to hit China hard, according to economists. 美国白宫公布了关税方案，将对钢铁进口征税25%，对铝进口征税10%。经济学家称，预计这两者都不会对中国产生严重冲击。
But the Trump administration is also expected to roll out a further series of tariffs, investment restrictions and other actions aimed directly at China when it concludes an investigation launched last year into Beijing’s intellectual property practices. 但是，当特朗普政府结束去年发起的一项针对中国知识产权惯例的调查时，预计还将推出更多直接针对中国的关税、投资限制和其他行动。
Beijing has warned that cascading trade protectionism risks hurting the global economy, and ultimately the US as well. “A trade war is never the right solution,” Mr Wang said on Thursday, addressing a press conference during the annual session of the National People’s Congress, China’s rubber-stamp legislature. 中国政府警告称，不断加剧的贸易保护主义可能会损害全球经济，最终也会危及美国。周四，王毅在中国的橡皮图章式立法机构全国人大(NPC)的年度会议上发言称，“打贸易战从来都不是解决问题的正确途径。”
“The outcome will only be harmful to everyone,” he added. “结果只会损人害己，”他接着说。
Mr Wang appeared to be responding to a series of Twitter messages over several days by Mr Trump that seemed to advocate a trade war. He tweeted that “trade wars are good, and easy to win” on March 2. 王毅看来是在对几天以来特朗普在Twitter上的一系列发言做出回应。特朗普的Twitter言论似乎是在鼓吹贸易战。3月2日，特朗普发推文称，“贸易战是好事，赢得贸易战很容易”。
Meanwhile on Wednesday, Mr Trump said he had asked Beijing to reduce its $375.2bn goods trade surplus with Washington by $1bn. 与此同时，特朗普于周三表示，他已要求中国政府把3752亿美元的对美商品贸易顺差减少10亿美元。
Li Cui, an economist at CCB International, said the immediate impact of the already announced tariff hikes on steel and aluminium will be small in China: steel and aluminium account for 3 per cent of China’s total exports, and exports have been less important in recent years as a main driver of growth. “Thus the economy-wide impact is limited,” she said. 建银国际(CCB International)经济学家崔历表示，美国已公布的提高钢铁和铝关税的措施对中国的影响将是很小的：钢铁和铝仅占中国出口总量的3%，而作为增长主要推动因素之一的出口，近年来已变得越来越不重要。“因此，这对于中国整体经济的影响是有限的，”她说。
Steel exports last year accounted for only 7 per cent of China’s domestic production, and the US is not a key export market. The impact on aluminium makers is likely to be larger, given the higher — about 15 per cent — US export share, Ms Li said. 去年，中国对美钢铁出口仅占国内产量的7%，而美国并不是一个关键的出口市场。崔历表示，对铝生产商的影响可能会更大，因为中国对美铝出口占国内产量的比例更高，约为15%。
Meanwhile, amid signs of pushback in Washington, the Trump administration showed signs of softening its plans for sweeping new tariffs on steel and aluminium as White House officials raised the possibility that Canada, Mexico and other countries could be excluded. The shift in tone came a day after the resignation of free-trader Gary Cohn as Donald Trump’s top economic adviser. 译者/何黎
