Overall Timeline:

Events leading up:
(Source: Wong. D., Koty. A. C. (2019) The US-China Trade War: A Timeline. [Online] Available from: https://www.china-briefing.com/news/the-us-china-trade-war-a-timeline [Accessed 3 June 2019])

2011 – 2016	Trump makes several statements criticizing China’s trade practices before running for president and on the 2016 campaign trail
Apr 6-7, 2017	Xi & Trump agree to set up a 100 Day Action Plan to resolve trade differences.
Apr 28, 2017	The US Trade Representative (USTR) is authorized to investigate whether steel/aluminum imports pose a threat to national security.
May 22, 2017	US and China agree to a trade deal that would give: – US firms greater access to China’s agriculture, energy, and financial markets; – China access to sell cooked poultry to the US.
Aug 18, 2017	The USTR initiates an investigation into the Chinese government relating to technology transfer, intellectual property and innovation.
Nov 8-10, 2017	Relations were considered to have warmed in Trump’s “state visit plus” to China
Feb 7, 2018	The US implements ‘global safeguard tariffs’ – placing a 30% tariff on solar panel imports (worth US$8.5 billion) and a 20% tariff on washing machine imports (worth US$1.8 billion).