US President, Donald Trump has threatened to raise his tariffs on China by an additional 50% from Wednesday, April 9, 2025, if China does not withdraw its retaliatory tariffs of 34% by Tuesday, April 8, 2025.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that China issued retaliatory tariffs despite “my warning that any country that Retaliates against the U.S. by issuing additional Tariffs, above and beyond their already existing long term Tariff abuse of our Nation, will be immediately met with new and substantially higher Tariffs, over and above those initially set.”
He added that all talks with China “concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated.”
He noted that negotiations with other countries, which have also requested meetings, will begin taking place immediately.
Since returning to power in January, Trump had already levied two tranches of 10% additional duties on all Chinese imports, which the White House said was necessary to stem the flow of illicit fentanyl from the country to the US.
Last week, Trump announced an additional 34% on all Chinese goods, which is set to take effect on Wednesday.
If his latest threat of an additional 50% went into effect, Chinese goods arriving in the US would effectively be subject to tariffs of 104%.
Prior to his latest tariff threat on China, the US President addressed the fallout from his sweeping new tariffs in a post on Truth Social, claiming they are “bringing in billions of dollars a week” to the government from countries that, he says, have long imposed similar levies on US goods.
He blamed China, whose markets he claimed, “are crashing,” for defying him and retaliating with a 34 percent tariff on US products, leading to fears of a trade war.
Trump also insisted his tariffs have caused “no inflation” at home, despite warnings from analysts about potential rising costs, and renewed his calls for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates to boost economic growth.
Despite the growing competition and tensions between the US and China, Beijing and Washington are major trade partners.
According to US government data, the country imported $438.9bn in Chinese goods last year making China its second largest exporter after Mexico.
US exports to China totalled $143.5bn in 2024.
Trump’s threat of imposing 50 percent tariffs on China risks spiking the prices of basic goods in the US that are entirely imported from China or have Chinese components.
China also risks instability in one of its largest markets it if becomes untenable to keep the same level of exports to the US due to tariffs. The levies could hurt Chinese industries and put a dent in the country’s trade surplus.
More to come…
