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On the face of it, an announcement of 25% tariffs against any nation trading with Iran amounts to a major escalation of Donald Trump’s global trade war.
But China, Iran‘s biggest trading partner, has kept its reaction pretty brief and pretty bland.
“There is no winner in a tariff war,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said, “China will firmly safeguard its legitimate and lawful rights and interests.”
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It is exactly the sort of thing China tends to say when it’s still rushing to figure out the details.
Indeed, it feels fair to assume that China is holding fire because, like the rest of the world, it is probably unsure how this new announcement will apply and to whom.
Trump offered no explanation, for instance, on what “doing business” with Iran actually amounts to and, crucially, whether China’s tariff truce with the US would leave it exempt.
In theory, China should be first in line for this extra tax.
While it is Iran’s biggest trading partner, it is also one of a relatively limited list of countries still willing to circumvent US sanctions to buy from it, despite the international backlash over the regime’s treatment of protesters seeking an end to clerical rule in the country.
Analysts have estimated that China buys at least 80% of Iran’s shipped oil, possibly as much as 90%. Exact figures are not published.
In addition, China has significant investments in Iran, with Chinese companies financing construction and infrastructure projects.
But the context of the US-China relationship is everything here.
Months of…
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