- President Donald Trump threatened to place an additional 50% tariff on China after the country imposed its own 34% retaliatory tariff on the United States. The president said he’d impose the new tariff on Wednesday if China doesn’t act by Tuesday.
- If Trump imposes an additional 54% duty on China, goods from that country will be charged 104% when they enter the United States.
- The trade dispute comes as the two countries try to make a deal that will determine the future of TikTok, the short-form video app.
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President Donald Trump threatened to impose an additional 50% tariffs on China if the country does not remove its own retaliatory tariffs against the United States. The president said he will impose the new tariffs on Wednesday, April 9, if China does not act by Tuesday, April 8.
Why is President Trump doing this?
On Friday, April 4, China imposed an additional 34% tariff on all U.S. goods and placed export controls on several items, including rare earth elements used to make cell phones, medical equipment and electric vehicles.
Those measures were a response to President Trump increasing the U.S. tariff on Chinese goods to 54% and closing a loophole for low-value packages to pass through customs without a tariff, known as duty-free de minimis shipments. An additional 50% would mean products from China have a tariff of 104% on their value.
What are the two sides saying?
According to Reuters, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry called President Trump’s tariffs “typical unilateralism and protectionism, and economic bullying.”
“The abuse of tariffs by the United States is tantamount to depriving countries, especially those in the Global South, of their right to development,” spokesperson Lin Jian said.
Trump stated in a post on Truth Social that China has been abusing the United States through tariffs, non-monetary tariffs, illegal subsidization of its companies and currency manipulation.
The president also said all ongoing negotiations with China will be terminated, while meetings with other countries will begin immediately.
The United States and China traded a total of $582.4 billion in goods in 2024 — the United States exported $143.5 billion to China, and China exported $438.9 billion to the United States.
What does TikTok have to do with this?
The potential for an escalation in trade relations came as the U.S. and China try to make a deal on selling the short-form video platform TikTok. A law passed by Congress requires the app’s Chinese parent company to sell it to an American firm due to national security concerns.
According to The Washington Post, the Trump administration was hours away from closing a deal last week until China backed out, until it could discuss tariffs and trade policy with President Trump.
