The warning comes amid an escalating trade war between Washington and Beijing.
Chinese imports to the US could face tariffs as high as 245%, according to a White House fact sheet released on Tuesday. The warning comes amid a growing trade rift between the world’s two largest economies.
The administration of US President Donald Trump has cited Beijing’s retaliation to previous levies as the reason for the latest potential hike.
“China now faces up to a 245% tariff on imports to the United States as a result of its retaliatory actions,” the fact sheet reads. However, it’s not clear from the document when the increase would come into force.
Washington has imposed several major tariff rises on Beijing in the past two months, increasing the duties from an initial 20%.
Beijing’s retaliation has included a hike to 125% on all American imports, a suspension of global shipments of rare-earth metals and magnets used in tech and military industries, and an order to Chinese airlines to stop accepting Boeing jets and parts.
The standoff with China comes amid a broader US tariff campaign targeting dozens of countries. According to Trump, the measures are part of an effort to balance the US trade deficit with its trading partners.
Following turmoil on the financial markets, the US administration paused higher tariffs for most countries to allow trade negotiations, except for China.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday that Trump was open to making a trade deal with the Asian nation, but that Beijing should make the first move.
China has slammed US tariffs as “a weapon to exert extreme pressure and pursue private interests” and an act of “unilateral economic bullying.” It has also vowed to continue to “take resolute measures to safeguard its legitimate interests.”
Image credit: Leoon Liang
Hasn’t idiot Trump yet realised that increasing these tariffs make no difference to China. Why doesn’t the moron gamble further by threatening to invade China?
Of course the tariffs impact China. USA is China’s biggest export market and they export way more to USA than USA exports to China. Increased tariffs will significantly impact Chinese businesses. There will also be a negative impact to US consumers with higher prices
Of course the tariffs will have an impact on China. USA is China’s biggest export market and they export a hell of a lot more to the US than the US exports to China. This will put significant pressure on many Chinese owned businesses. It will also however impact US consumers with increased prices
Precisely the US imports a ton of Chinese goods.Imposing tariffs on them ultimately hurts the US consumer the most. IPhones will rise from $1000+ to $3000+ if they are forced to move production to the USA and it will take till 28 before the infrastructure is even remotely in place.Just one example. As it stands the tariffs stand to damage some of the US’s top brands and that conclusion is from the US govts own top advisors.
I wish every other country would do the same
I believe about 14% of China’s trade goes to the USA. That’s it biggest single trading block but its small compared to the 30% of GDP that Vietnam extracts from US trade. A nation right next door to China and a developing economy.
So 86% of China’s trade is not with the USA. It also has a well developed production and logistics infrastructure, the latter and maybe the former is the biggest in the world. Not too hard to diversify into other markets.
The USA needs China a lot more than China needs the USA.