The US and China open a trade war with sweeping tariffs

The world's two largest economies opened a trade war this year as the United States and China began imposing sweeping tariffs on each other's goods, launching a confrontation that would unsettle global markets, disrupt supply chains and reshape the international economic landscape for years.

The conflict began as the United States imposed tariffs on a range of Chinese imports, citing concerns over trade practices, intellectual property and the large trade imbalance between the two countries. China retaliated with tariffs of its own, and the dispute escalated in successive rounds.

The tariffs affected hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of goods, raising costs for businesses and consumers, disrupting the intricate supply chains that link the two economies, and injecting significant uncertainty into the global economic outlook.

Businesses on both sides, and around the world, grappled with the consequences, as the tariffs raised the cost of imported components and finished goods, prompted companies to reconsider their supply chains, and created uncertainty that weighed on investment and planning.

The trade war reflected deeper tensions between the United States and China, encompassing not only trade but technology, geopolitics and the broader rivalry between the established and rising powers, tensions that would persist and shape international relations well beyond the immediate dispute.

The onset of the trade war marked a significant shift in the global economic order, challenging the trend toward ever-freer trade that had prevailed for decades and raising questions about the future of globalisation. The conflict would prove lengthy and consequential, with far-reaching effects on the two economies and on the wider world, a defining economic story of the era and a sign of the growing strains in the relationship between the world's two leading powers.