Tariffs on China set to rise to at least 104% on Wednesday, White House says
New York Hong Kong CNN President Donald Trump is set to impose an astounding in levies across all Chinese imports on Wednesday White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt communicated on Tuesday This comes on top of Chinese tariffs that were in place prior to Trump s second term China was already set to see tariffs increase by on Wednesday as part of Trump s reciprocal tariffs package But the president tacked on another after Beijing didn t back off on its promise to impose retaliatory tariffs on US goods by noon Tuesday adding an additional in duties Earlier Tuesday China s Commerce Ministry declared it firmly opposes the additional tariffs on Chinese imports calling it a mistake upon a mistake The ministry vowed to escalate its retaliation on US exports US stocks which soared Tuesday morning began moving lower following Leavitt s comments Markets ultimately ended the day markedly lower The Dow fell points or The broader S P fell The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slid Countries like China who have chosen to retaliate and try to double down on their mistreatment of American workers are making a mistake Leavitt narrated reporters on Tuesday President Trump has a spine of steel and he will not break The Chinese want to make a deal they just don t know how to do it she added She declined to share what if any terms Trump would consider to lower tariffs on China Asian markets largely tracked Wall Street s losses with Japan s Nikkei opening about lower on Wednesday Hong Kong s Hang Seng also fell South Korea s Kopsi and Australia s benchmark ASX index were each down about In February Trump had initially imposed a tariff on all Chinese goods with no exceptions tying it to the country s alleged role in aiding illegal immigration and getting fentanyl into the US Last month he doubled those rates China was America s second largest source of imports last year shipping a total of billion worth of goods to the US while the US exported billion worth of goods to China The mutual tariffs threaten to hurt domestic industries and are poised to aftermath in layoffs When Trump s first term ended the US charged an average tariff rate of on Chinese goods according to a Peterson Institute for International Economic analysis The Biden administration kept bulk of Trump s tariffs in place while also adding additional ones bringing the average rate to Come Wednesday the total average tariff on Chinese exports to the US will soar to nearly Probable countermeasures China s state media and social media users have struck a defiant tone to Trump s threat of additional tariffs Two influential commentators with links to Beijing shared an identical list of feasible countermeasures China could hit back with citing unnamed sources The promising measures include significantly increasing tariffs on US agricultural products such as soybeans and sorghum banning the import of US poultry suspending cooperation on fentanyl limiting sector access for services such as legal consultancies further restricting or banning outright the import of US films and assessing how much American companies earned from their intellectual property in China China does not provoke trouble but it is not afraid of it either wrote Liu Hong a senior editor at China s official state news agency Xinhua who shared the list on his social media account The set of measures were also shared by a separate account run by Ren Yi the Harvard University-educated grandson of the late senior Communist Party official Ren Zhongyi While previous rounds of Chinese tariffs caused more American businesses to look to other foreign countries like Mexico and Vietnam to manufacture goods China remained the top foreign source of several items That includes among others toys communication equipment such as smartphones computers and a wide range of other consumer electronics All these goods are likely to cost US consumers substantially more soon Dozens of other countries as well as the European Union also face a midnight deadline for new tariff rates Those rates which Trump laid out last week range from to Leavitt reported reporters that despite several conversations with world leaders aiming to negotiate lower tariff rates Trump has little appetite to delay his plans Having spoken with Trump earlier on Tuesday Leavitt explained He expects that these tariffs are going to go into effect At the same time she explained Trump instructed his business unit to make tailor-made deals with countries that want to negotiate Pressed further on whether the president had any timeline or deadline for the transaction deals Leavitt again reiterated that they won t be off-the-rack deals
