It's just a couple of hours before the US tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of imports from China are to take effect. US trade officials on Thursday confirmed they would start collecting duties of 25 percent after midnight Eastern time, Friday morning. So, the clock is ticking. Roee Ruttenberg has more.

The White House had set the date - July 6th - weeks ago. And, has shown no indication of backing down. So, right after midnight, Washington-time, U.S. customs agents stationed at American port of entry will begin collecting duties on a wide-range of Chinese goods-a list that covers more than 800 categories: farming equipment, industrial machinery, medical devices, and some car and airplane parts. Together, they're worth some $34 billion dollars.

U.S. President Donald Trump insists the tariffs are necessary to level the playing field. He says China's trade surplus with the U.S. - which stood at 375 billion dollars last year - is unsustainable, and unfair to the American worker.

Trump has also accused China of stealing American intellectual property, and says the tariffs are in part a response to that.

Major American companies and organizations have urged the administration to reconsider. The head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned that ultimately it'll be the American worker, American businesses, and American consumers that will suffer in a trade war. "Tariffs are simply taxes that raise prices for everyone," he said.

An estimated 99 percent of the items being taxed are supply chain goods. Meaning, parts, that go into a bigger product. Often, one made - and ultimately sold - in the U.S.

These new tariffs are on top of the ones the Trump administration slapped earlier this year on metal imports not just from China, but from several of Washington's trading partners in the West. And the retaliation has begun.

Mexico on Thursday introduced the second part of its tariffs package on three billion dollars' worth of U.S. goods, most of them agricultural products. And earlier this week, Canada slapped on its own duties on 13 billion dollars' worth of U.S. imports.

ROEE RUTTENBERG WASHINGTON "The EU has approved a tariffs package on about three billion dollars' worth of U.S. goods. It's due to go into effect this month. But Brussels is now threatening to tax more America goods worth three-HUNDRED billion dollars that if President Trump follows through with a plan to tax European cars. If this conflict escalates to a full-scale trade war, it'll likely be one that's fought on multiple fronts. Roee Ruttenberg, CGTN, in Washington."