Less than one month into US President Donald Trump's second term, and the first salvos in a potential new trade war between the United States and China are already being fired, with tit-for-tat tariffs and the threat of lasting economic consequences on both sides.

After the US imposed a sweeping 10% tariff on all Chinese imports earlier in February, China announced 10%-15% levies on imports of US crude oil, liquefied natural gas, agricultural machinery, and other products.

Beijing's retaliatory tariffs came into effect on Monday, the same day as separate 25% US tariffs on steel and aluminum imports took effect.

Along with the retaliatory tariffs, China has announced new export controls on minerals critical to making high-tech products like semiconductors.

Beijing also launched an antitrust probe into Google, and placed US companies PVH Group — the owner of brands Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger — ­and biotech company Illumina, on its "unreliable entities" list. China has also issued a complaint at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over the 10% tariffs.

"The storyline from six years ago started to repeat," Wang Guochen, a scholar at Taiwan's Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, told DW. Trump launched the first round of tariffs on Chinese goods in 2018, with Beijing responding in kind, leading to a cycle of ratcheting tariffs.

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Average US tariffs on Chinese imports have remained above 19% since June........

© Deutsche Welle