US considers restrictions Chinese tech companies

US trade representatives are considering retaliations against Chinese restrictions on overseas companies operating in high-tech sectors, potentially sparking a new trade skirmish between the superpowers.

Currently, foreign companies working in China, such as Amazon or Microsoft, must partner with Chinese companies and license their technology to the Chinese partners in order to get government permission to operate.

According to the Washington Post, the US Treasury Department is mulling whether to limit Chinese companies such as Alibaba as they look to enter the US market. Currently there are no restrictions on Chinese tech companies from doing business in the US.

The US also recently told the World Trade Organization that it has agreed to talks with China over its planned imposition of tariffs on steel and other Chinese goods.

China made the latest move in the trade war on Tuesday and imposed anti-dumping duties on imports of US cereal grain sorghum, which is mostly cultivated in the southern states of the US where President Trump finds his strongest supporters.

The cereal that is used to feed cattle, make liquor and a popular sweetener will suffer a 178.6% “deposit”, that will affect as a tariff. The reason behind this is because China claims the sorghum imports had been unfairly subsidised, damaging national products. US sorghum exports amount to nearly $1bn a year although they peaked in 2015 at $2bn that year.