Wed 09 April 2025:
China on Wednesday raised additional tariffs on all US imports to 84%, further escalating the trade war with Washington, after US President Donald Trump launched a flurry of tariffs on allies, as well as rivals.
The US has raised reciprocal tariffs on Chinese imports to 104%, effective today.
“The US escalation of tariffs against China is a mistake on top of a mistake; it seriously infringes upon China’s legitimate rights and interests and gravely undermines the rules‑based multilateral trading system,” said the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council, according to the state-run Global Times.
Announcing the move in a policy paper, China’s commerce ministry said the US tariff escalation is counterproductive, warning that Beijing “has the firm will and abundant means to take necessary countermeasures and fight to the end”.
“History and facts have proven that the United States’ increase in tariffs will not solve its own problems,” said the policy statement. “Instead, it will trigger sharp fluctuations in financial markets, push up US inflation pressure, weaken the US industrial base and increase the risk of a US economic recession, which will ultimately only backfire on itself.
The ministry also pushed back on the notion of a lopsided trade relationship, arguing that when accounting for services and earnings from US firms operating inside China, economic exchange between the two countries is “roughly balanced.”
Separately, Beijing also added six US firms to the “unreliable entity list,” and 12 other US entities to the export control list on Wednesday.
Trump has refused to back down from his tariff policies which have roiled global markets.
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US stock futures down after China’s new tariff
The US stock market has taken another hit after China announced a steeper tariff of 84 percent on US goods.
As of 07:21 am [11:21 GMT], e-minis – small-sized stock index futures – were down more than 1 percent across major US indexes, including the Dow, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.
Chinese yuan drops to 17-year low
The onshore yuan, the highly regulated currency traded within mainland China, has ended domestic trading today at 4.3498 to the dollar, its lowest point since December 2007.
It comes despite efforts by the government to sell dollars in its foreign exchange market to slow the yuan’s fall – as the country reels from the impact of a new 104 percent tariff imposed by the US.
As noted earlier, Trump accused China of “manipulating” its currency to blunt the impact of the tariff, which he defended as a counterpunch to what he described as years of China “ripping off” the US.
US treasury secretary says China’s tariff retaliation ‘unfortunate’
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessen has responded to China’s move to boost its tariff on US goods to 84 percent, calling the move “unfortunate”.
“I think it’s unfortunate that the Chinese actually don’t want to come and negotiate, because they are the worst offenders in the international trading system,” Bessent said in an interview with Fox Business Network.
When asked about potentially kicking Chinese stocks off of US exchanges, he said everything is on the table.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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