China’s finance ministry today announced that it has raised additional tariffs on US goods from 84 per cent to 125 per cent. In a statement, the ministry said, the U.S. side’s imposition of excessively high tariffs on China seriously violates international economic and trade rules and is simply an act of unilateral bullying and coercion. Investors had been waiting to see how Beijing would respond to US President Donald Trump’s move on Wednesday to effectively raise tariffs on Chinese goods to 145 per cent.
China raised its total retaliatory tariff on U.S. imports to 125% today after the Trump administration clarified yesterday that U.S. duties on Beijing are actually 145% because of earlier fentanyl-related levies.
President Donald Trump said late yesterday that he was not tracking a fall in the stock market as he met with his Cabinet secretaries amid worsening trade tensions with China. The U.S. dollar was at a three-year low against the euro, and gold — a haven asset for worried investors — was near an all-time high.
Democrats are questioning the timing of Trump’s social media post encouraging people to buy stocks that came shortly before he announced a reduction in most tariffs. A group of Democratic senators asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether any financial impropriety occurred.
The president is scheduled to have a physical exam at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Trump, 78, has been opaque in the past about his health.
Investors had been waiting to see how Beijing would respond to Trump’s move on Wednesday to effectively raise tariffs on Chinese goods to 145% while announcing a 90-day pause on duties on dozens of other countries’ goods. The yuan slipped to levels last seen during the global financial crisis on Thursday but rebounded slightly on Friday.
“The U.S. side’s imposition of excessively high tariffs on China seriously violates international economic and trade rules, runs counter to basic economic principles and common sense, and is simply an act of unilateral bullying and coercion,” China’s Finance Ministry said in a statement.
The tit-for-tat increases stand to make goods trade between the world’s two largest economies impossible, analysts say, with import duties above around 35% wiping out Chinese exporters’ profit margins and making American offerings in China similarly overly expensive.
expensive.
