American liquefied natural gas makes the list of China’s tariff targets.
Among the $60 billion worth of U.S. goods that China has threatened to tax at 25% rate, LNG’s inclusion has potentially heated up the trade war even more – with the U.S. being the world’s top producer of natural gas and China being the second-largest importer of LNG as of last year. Around 15% of U.S. LNG exports were shipped to China in 2017.
Earlier, Beijing had refrained from including natural gas/fuel in its list of U.S. goods that it planned to increase tariffs on, and at one point was even willing to buy more U.S. energy exports – a sentiment far off from the latest trade tensions.