China increases additional tariffs on US imports to 125%

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China said it would increase additional tariffs on US goods to 125 per cent, in the latest escalation of the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.

China’s finance ministry said the increase from current additional levels of 84 per cent would take effect from April 12.

But it added that it would ignore any further US tariff rises on Chinese exports, “given that at the current tariff level, there is no market acceptance for US goods exported to China”.

“The US’s imposition of abnormally high tariffs on China seriously violates international economic and trade rules, basic economic laws and common sense, and is completely a unilateral bullying and coercion,” the ministry said.

The move is the latest in a weeklong tit-for-tat between the world’s two biggest economies that has seen US President Donald Trump’s administration isolate China after pausing some tariffs on other trading partners.

It comes alongside a mounting wave of shipping disruption that threatens to break down international trade between the countries, with cancellations of shipments threatening transpacific voyages.

The chaotic rollout of Trump’s aggressive tariff agenda has convulsed markets since his “liberation day” announcement on April 2, wiping trillions of dollars from global stock indices and sending bond yields soaring.

Earlier this week, Trump announced a 90-day reprieve for dozens of countries from his so-called reciprocal levies announced at that time, prompting a recovery in market prices. China was excluded from the reprieve.

Trump last week introduced additional tariffs on China of 34 per cent, which added to two previous increases of 10 per cent and existing levies that varied across goods. After successive responses from Beijing, he increased the additional tariffs to 84 per cent, and then 125 per cent.

At a press conference in Beijing on Friday, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who met President Xi Jinping, sought to encourage talks between Washington and Beijing.

“Trade wars are not good, no one wins, and I’m sure that what the world needs is for both China and the United States to talk,” Sánchez said on his third visit to Beijing in just over two years.

“There are no winners in a tariff war and that confronting the world will only lead to self-isolation,” Xi said, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Additional reporting by Gloria Li in Hong Kong

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