COLUMN-China's ramping up of tariffs on U.S. LNG means nothing, everything: Russell - Reuters

COLUMN-China's ramping up of tariffs on U.S. LNG means nothing, everything: Russell - Reuters:

China’s decision to hike import duties on U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) is a move that means very little for the market in the short term, but it has the potential to deliver outsized consequences the longer the levies remain in place.

As part of its latest round of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports, Beijing increased the duty on LNG shipments from 10 percent to 25 percent.

This will make it even more uneconomic for Chinese buyers to purchase LNG cargoes from the United States. The 10 percent tariff put in place last year has already devastated the trade, with China’s imports of the fuel dropping sharply.