A worker takes a break as steel wire waits to be loaded onto barges in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, on May 12, 2016. (Photo : Getty Images)
China has pushed back against "extreme" tariffs on its exports amid fears in Beijing that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will embark on a policy of economic protectionism upon assuming office in Jan. 20.
Trump has publicly vowed to impose tariffs of up to 45 percent on Chinese goods and said cheap imports are "killing" the U.S. manufacturing sector.
The president-elect has also appointed one of China's most prominent critics to key trade posts and pledged to label the country as a currency manipulator.
But China's commerce ministry says it is already facing a record number of retaliatory trade measures from rival economies and trading blocs, including increased steel tariffs from the EU as Brussels moved to protect the Europe's steel industry from "dumping" of cheap Chinese product.
"Trade disputes are becoming increasingly politicized, measures are increasingly extreme and final tariff rates are relatively high," ministry spokesman Sun Jiwen said, citing measures against Chinese steel, solar panel, ceramics, and tire industries.
Trump's appointments to key cabinet positions have also stoked fears of a trade war between China and the U.S.
Peter Navarro, an economist who authored the books "Death by China" and "The Coming China Wars," has been tapped to lead the White House National Trade Council and serve as director of trade and industrial policy.
Navarro has accused China of destroying both American factories and jobs by flooding the U.S. will illegally subsidized and "contaminated, defective and cancerous" exports.
Politicians must "aggressively and comprehensively address the China problem" before it leads to full-blown conflict, Navarro has warned in his book.
In a 2012 Netflix documentary based on "Death by China," which Trump lauded as "right on," Navarro blames China for the loss of 57,000 American factories and 25 million jobs.
While Trump has repeatedly scored China for undermining the U.S. manufacturing industry, EU officials have also accused Beijing of unfair trade practices, including flooding markets with state-subsidized cheap goods.
The accusations have been particularly prominent in the European struggling steel sector, leading to Brussels imposing tariffs of up to 74 percent on some Chinese imports in October last year.
Business minister Sajid Javid faced intense criticism in the U.K. for opposing EU's plans to protect steel producers such as Tata Steel U.K., which analysts warn to be in the brink of collapse.
China highlighted a series of measures it said had been erected to protect foreign companies from its exports.
The commerce ministry said 27 countries and regions slapped 119 trade policies against China to a value of $14.34 billion in 2016, up 75 percent from the past year.
Twenty-one countries and regions took 49 remedies against Chinese steel imports, which it said cost $7.9 billion, up 63.1 percent from 2015.
