Global markets are bracing themselves as the deadline nears for the Trump administration to start charging tariffs on $34bn of imports from China, in what will mark the first shots fired in the trade war between the world’s two largest economies. 

On Friday, the US is scheduled to start charging a 25 per cent import tax on more than 800 products – including industrial robots and electric cars. In return, Beijing has promised to begin hitting the US with a similar tariff on a list that includes soyabeans, beef and whiskey. 

Both Washington and Beijing have already prepared further product lists that could take the trade covered by new imports to $50bn on each side. And US President Donald Trump has ordered officials to consider a further $200bn in Chinese imports for additional tariffs, a measure Beijing has pledged to match.