As of today, Beijing has taxed $110 billion worth of US goods, prompting many to argue that China can't keep up the tit-for-tat contest because China only imported $130 billion of US goods in 2017, according to the US International Trade Commission. However, American and Chinese trade statistics exhibit large discrepancies due to different methodologies. Based on China's Customs data, the United States exported $154.4 billion to China, which means that as far as Beijing is concerned, it can tax an additional $44 billion as retaliation.

The following analysis fully breaks down the $110 billion worth of US goods that Beijing has taxed so far and looks into the $44 billion of additional US exports that could be the potential target of future retaliation.

What China Has Done in the Past 15 Months

First tranche: Imposed 25% tariffs on $50 billion of US goods (Summer 2018).

Second tranche: Imposed 10%, 10%, 5%, and 5% tariffs on four different lists of US goods that totaled $60 billion (September 2018).

Third tranche: Raised tariff rates to 25%, 20%, and 10% on the first three lists and kept 5% on the fourth list of the same $60 billion of US goods (May 2019).