The peso slightly weakened anew against the dollar anew following the new tariffs imposed by China against the US.
The local currency ended at P52.12 against the greenback on Wednesday, April 4, four centavos stronger than the P52.08-per-dollar finish on Tuesday.
Dollars traded slipped to $504.4 million from the $657.5 million traded on Tuesday.
A trader said that the peso weakened against the dollar in the later session following the news about the ongoing trade spat between China and the US.
“We traded [weaker] only in the afternoon when the news came out that China will be putting also tariffs on US goods worth about $50 billion,” the trader said in a phone interview.
Beijing announced that it will launch another round of tariffs against 106 US imports, including soybeans, cars and whisky, amounting to $50 billion.
This was after it slapped tariffs on 128 American goods including frozen pork, wine and apples.
This is Beijing’s retaliation due to the duties imposed by President Donald J. Trump on Chinese steel and aluminum as well as the $50-billion tariffs that was the result a seven-month investigation into alleged intellectual property theft. — Karl Angelo N. Vidal
