The Trump administration said it would slap 10% tariffs on another US$200 billion (RM810 billion) worth of Chinese imports, raising fears the festering trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies could hit global growth.

“There certainly is going to be pronounced risks mainly because we’ve now moved on to the tit-for-tat-for-tit phase of it,” said Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy at Mizuho Bank in Singapore.

Last week, Washington imposed 25% tariffs on US$34 billion (RM137 billion) of Chinese imports and Beijing responded immediately with matching tariffs on the same amount of US exports to China.

“This is going to drag on until they can all come to the table and agree to even the playing field. But the
unpredictability of the situation continues to rattle the markets,” said Varathan.

Metals fell the most among commodities, with nickel, tin, and aluminium dropping to multi-month lows.

Copper on the London Metal Exchange dropped as much as 4% to US$6,081 (RM24,540) a tonne, its lowest since July last year.

On the Shanghai Futures Exchange, the most-traded copper fell as much as 47,520 yuan (RM28,713) a tonne, its weakest since June last year, before closing at 48,120 yuan (RM29,075), down 3.4%.

Zinc dropped by its 6% downside limit in Shanghai to 20,620 yuan (RM12,459) per tonne, the lowest since June last year. It fell as much as 4.8% to US$2,503 (RM10,093) in London, the lowest since June 2017.

LME lead slid by up to 4% to US$2,220 (RM8,952) a tonne, the lowest since July last year.