March 5 (Lagos) - China has pledged to increase defense spending and said that it was ready for a trade war or any other type of war with the United States. The US doubled the tariffs on Chinese goods from 10% to 20% while China responded with 15% tariffs on chicken, wheat, corn, and cotton and 10% of other items like sorghum, pork, beef, soybeans.
The US President also said that there could be some bumps in the markets but they would be temporary. He however did not specifically speak about any kind of military war with China. He has repeadedly blamed the "fentanyl" issue for the tariffs. Fentanyl is a drug that is killing hundreds of thousands of Americans every year and China is the biggest producer of that drug which is used in various medicines. He has also used the same issue to impose tariffs of Canada and Mexico who he blames for not checking the smuggling of actual fentanyl drug that is killing people. Chinese side says that the "fentanyl" issue is a flimsy excuse to impose trade tariffs.
"If the United States... persists in waging a tariff war, a trade war, or any other kind of war, the Chinese side will fight them to the bitter end" Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said while responding to a question of a New York Times journalist.
The tariffs are here and markets have reacted already by falling hard over the past month.
On the home front, stocks declined again today led by declined in Insurance and Banking stocks particularly ZENTHBANK &
ACCESSCORP while
OKOMUOIL was the most traded stock and also declined by 2 Naira per unit.