(Yicai) April 9 -- China has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization requesting a consultation over President Donald Trump's so-called reciprocal tariffs on US trading partners.

China claims the new tariff measures breach the US' obligations under various conditions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994, the Agreement on Customs Valuation, and the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, the WTO announced yesterday.

Trump signed an executive order on "reciprocal tariffs" on April 2, announcing a baseline 10 percent levy on trading partners and additional tariffs for some effective April 5. Chinese imports face an additional 34 percent border tax.

"The measures at issue, adopted by the United States unilaterally on the alleged basis of 'reciprocity' and 'trade balance,' are a clear breach of its own WTO obligations and commitments, and seriously undermine the rules-based multilateral trading system, and are discriminatory and protectionist in nature," according to China's complaint.

Dispute consultations are part of the WTO's conflict resolution procedure, allowing parties to discuss issues and find solutions without further litigation. If the dispute remains unresolved for 60 days, the complaining party may request a panel ruling.

On April 4, China's Ministry of Commerce announced several countermeasures in response to the reciprocal tariffs. These included adding drone manufacturers Skydio and Brinc Drones and nine other US firms to its unreliable entity list, launching anti-dumping probes into medical computed tomography tubes imported from the US and India, conducting a separate industrial competitiveness investigation into broader imports of medical CT tubes, banning the export of dual-use items to 16 US entities in the export control list, and implementing export control measures on items related to seven types of medium and heavy rare earths.

Trump's new tariff policy came into effect today, increasing the tariff on Chinese imports to 104 percent after China refused to withdraw its 34 percent retaliatory tariff on US imports.

China will resolutely take countermeasures to safeguard its rights and interests should the US escalate its tariff measures, a ministry spokesperson said yesterday regarding US threats to impose the additional 50 percent tariff on Chinese imports on April 7. The US reciprocal tariffs are groundless and typical practice of unilateral bullying, the person added.

The US tariff escalation threat against China compounds its mistake and further exposes its blackmail nature, the spokesperson noted. "China will fight till the end if the US side is bent on going down the wrong path."

China urges the US to correct its wrongdoings immediately, cancel all unilateral tariff measures against it, stop its economic and trade suppression, and settle differences with China properly through equal-footed dialogue based on mutual respect, the spokesperson said.

Editor: Martin Kadiev