Tariffs on Chinese goods worth $34 billion by the US have become effective on Friday, 6 July, as planned. The action takes the war of threats between the two biggest economies into real action, to which China had promised to retaliate with equal intensity. As promised China has imposed tariffs on some US imports at the rate of 25 percent (same as the US imposed on its products), as per Chinese state news agency Xinhua. The date of implementation is however not been disclosed yet.

The world expected that a negotiation would be agreed upon by now. However, US president Donald Trump said on Thursday that the tariffs on Chinese goods worth $34 billion (ranging from farming plows to airplane parts) would be effective from 12:01 am EST on Friday. He further said that another $16 billion was expected to come into effect in another two weeks and he would consider another $500 billion of Chinese goods for additional tariffs if China retaliated on the already scheduled actions.

China's Commerce Ministry's spokesperson had earlier said that it would not "fire the first shot," but was now forced to respond with tariffs as the US "launched the largest trade war in economic history." Its customs agency stated on Thursday it would impose tariffs on the US goods as soon as US duties take effect on Chinese goods.

CNBC reported that as per economists' estimates the direct impact of the trade tensions on China's growth in 2018 is expected to be 0.1 to 0.3 percent as China's plans to open its markets to the world will continue. The US, on the other hand, will be hit harder as many American firms have investments in China. Also, the country is pursuing trade wars with other partner nations including its neighbour Canada.

Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman said, "U.S. measures are essentially attacking global supply and value chains. To put it simply, the U.S. is opening fire on the entire world, including itself."

A DBS note suggests that economies of Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan are at greater risk in Asia with its trade openness and exposure to supply chains. A growth drop is expected in 2018 and 2019 for the nations.