China’s light-vehicle imports likely will drop by more than 5 percent in 2019 if the economy keeps losing steam and the country’s trade disputes with the United States continue, China’s largest dealer of imported cars and light trucks warned. The dealer, Sinomach Automobile Co., disclosed the forecast at a forum organized in Beijing Saturday. In the first nine months of the year, about 847,000 vehicles were imported into China, a decline of 4.2 percent from the same period last year, according to Sinomach. Roughly 622,000 imported vehicles were delivered to customers during the period while the rest were stockpiled at dealerships. On July 1, the Chinese government slashed tariffs on light-vehicle imports to 15 percent from 25 percent. But on July 6, it raised the tariffs for vehicles imported from the U.S. to 40 percent to retaliate against punitive tariffs the Trump administration slapped on a sweeping range of Chinese goods.