China raises tariff on U.S. goods to 125%
China is raising its tariff on U.S. imports to 125% from its previous rate of 84%, signaling that this is likely to be its last increase for the moment as tit-for-tat tariffs reach levels that make trade between the world’s two biggest economies unfeasible.
“Given that, at the current tariff level, U.S. exports to China are no longer commercially viable, China will not respond to any further tariff hikes by the U.S. on Chinese goods,” the government said in a statement today.
Trump said Wednesday that the combined tariff on Chinese goods would rise to 125%, after China refused to rescind retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods that matched ones Trump earlier announced. The White House clarified yesterday that the total U.S. tariff on Chinese goods is now 145%, including 20% in additional tariffs that Trump imposed in February and March.
The 125% Chinese tariff on U.S. goods takes effect tomorrow.
How Trump changed his mind on tariffs
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Reporting from Washington
“Liberation Day” gave way to Capitulation Day on Thursday.
President Donald Trump pulled back Wednesday on a series of harsh tariffs targeting friends and foes alike in an audacious bid to remake the global economic order.
Trump’s early afternoon announcement followed a harrowing week in which Republican lawmakers and confidants privately warned him that the tariffs could wreck the economy. His own aides had quietly raised alarms about the financial markets before he suspended a tariff regime that he had unveiled with a flourish just one week earlier in a Rose Garden ceremony.
The stock market rose immediately after the about-face, ending days of losses that have forced older Americans who’ve been sinking their savings into 401(k)s to rethink their retirement plans.
