Trump threatens extra tax enhance on Chinese imports as markets spiral amid commerce struggle
President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to slap an additional 50 percent tax on Chinese imports after the Chinese government retaliated against his latest unprovoked set of tariffs by announcing a reciprocal 34 percent levy last week.
The move would make the effective import tax rate on Chinese goods a whopping 104 percent by adding the 50 percent levy on top of the 34 percent tax he announced last week and the 20 percent import tax rate that had been in place until recently.
Trump made the announcement in a post on his Truth Social website, writing that Beijing had ignored his vow to retaliate against any country that did not accept his decision to unilaterally tax imports based on a made-up formula that his advisers have said treats any trade deficit as concrete evidence of unfair trade practices.
“Yesterday, China issued Retaliatory Tariffs of 34%, on top of their already record setting Tariffs, Non-Monetary Tariffs, Illegal Subsidization of companies, and massive long term Currency Manipulation, despite my warning that any country that Retaliates against the U.S. by issuing additional Tariffs, above and beyond their already existing long term Tariff abuse of our Nation, will be immediately met with new and substantially higher Tariffs, over and above those initially set,” he wrote.
Trump added that he would therefore “impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th” if China “does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow” and announced that “all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated” while negotiations with other countries over his import tax increases will continue.
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Independent.
The president’s latest threats come as stock markets tumbled for the third consecutive trading day following what Trump had dubbed “liberation day” — his announcement of wide-ranging import taxes as part of what he has described as an effort to undo decades of globalization and reindustrialize a U.S. economy that has become increasingly dominated by services and knowledge-based work in recent years.
The massive sell-off had a brief respite around 10:30 a.m. ET on Monday after CNBC and social media influencers falsely reported that National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Trump was considering a 90-day pause on tariffs for all countries other than China.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt immediately shot down the reports as “fake news” and the markets continued to plummet following her denial of any consideration of a pause on the import taxes, which Trump frequently and falsely claims will be paid by foreign governments rather than by importers who pass them along to consumers in the form of higher prices.
The rumors appeared to stem from an interview Hassett gave on Fox News, during which he was asked if the administration would consider a 90-day pause as proposed by billionaire Bill Ackman.
“I think that the president is going to decide what the president is going to decide,” Hassett responded.
“I would urge everyone, especially Bill, to ease off the rhetoric a little bit,” he added.
The roller coaster Monday comes after the stock market closed with a bloodbath Friday as the Dow Jones lost 2,231 points and the S&P 500 dropped 6 percent. As a result, last week marked the worst week for the stock market since 2020, and only the fourth time in history that the Dow lost 2,000 points in a single day.
JPMorgan’s Chief Economist Bruce Kasman said Friday the investment bank now sees a 60 percent chance of the global economy entering a recession in 2025, up from 40 percent. The last time the increase in chance was that large was in 1968 — and it was followed by a recession, JPMorgan economists noted.
Despite these losses, Trump praised his own tariff plan on Monday morning.
“Oil prices are down, interest rates are down (the slow moving Fed should cut rates!), food prices are down, there is NO INFLATION, and the long time abused USA is bringing in Billions of Dollars a week from the abusing countries on Tariffs that are already in place,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO,” he wrote in a later post. “Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!). Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!”
Source: independent.co.uk
