“China’s imports of U.S. liquefied natural gas have completely stopped for more than 10 weeks, according to shipping data showing how the Sino-American trade war has spread to energy co-operation,” reported the Financial Times on April 1. The last delivery was on Feb. 6, they report, adding that “A second tanker was redirected to Bangladesh after it failed to arrive before China imposed a 15% tariff on U.S. LNG on February 10. The tariff has since increased to 49%, making U.S. natural gas uneconomic for Chinese buyers for the foreseeable future.”
A similar ban by Trump in his first term lasted for over a year. FT notes that the “impact of the stand-off has potentially far-reaching implications, strengthening China’s energy relationship with Russia and raising questions over the huge expansion of multibillion-dollar LNG terminals that is under way in the U.S. and Mexico.”
