Tit for tat: Trump threatens China with another 50% tariff hike

Last week, Chinese authorities said they would impose tariffs of 34% on American imports from April 10 in response to a proportional increase in American tariffs on Chinese imports from April 9. The US president has threatened China with another 50% tariff increase, but the Chinese side has made it clear that it will fight to the end.

Image source: Unsplash, Vince Fleming

Essentially, starting tomorrow, imports of Chinese goods into the U.S. will be taxed at a rate of 54 percent, and if Trump’s new threat materializes, the duty will increase to 104 percent. China’s Ministry of Commerce, as reported by CNBC, expressed “strong opposition” to Donald Trump’s tariff policy this week. The Chinese side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures to protect its own rights and interests, as noted in an official statement from the department.

In turn, Trump is demanding that China withdraw an additional 34% tariff on American goods, which will be introduced as a retaliatory measure for the recent increase in tariff rates on Chinese goods imported into the United States. In the base case, this tariff already reaches 20%, with the rate at 10% for all other countries, but this week it will increase by another 34%.

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce literally stated the following: “The threat from the US to raise tariffs on goods from China is a mistake upon a mistake. China will never accept this. If the US continues to insist on its own, China will fight to the end.” According to experts, with such a scale of tariff duties, it will no longer matter to China whether they increased by 50% or 500%. Although China has to defend itself, both sides are now testing each other’s readiness to defend their interests.

Other measures that China may resort to in its confrontation with the US may include a ban on imports of American agricultural products, as well as additional restrictions on the export of valuable minerals to the US. Sanctions have already affected the activities of some American companies in the Chinese market, such as the memory manufacturer Micron Technology. In any case, experts believe that after the initial “muscle flexing”, China and the US will inevitably sit down at the negotiating table, since an escalation of the “trade war” is not in the interests of either country.