Investing.com -- U.S. President Donald Trump has announced a significant increase in tariffs on Chinese goods, raising the rate from 104% to 125% with immediate effect. The announcement was made via a post on Truth Social, a social media platform. The President cited China’s lack of respect for global markets as the primary reason for this decision.
In the same post, President Trump also mentioned the possibility of China realizing in the near future that its current trade practices with the U.S. and other nations are neither sustainable nor acceptable.
China earlier declared that it is putting an additional 50% tariff on imports from the United States, increasing China’s reciprocal tariffs on U.S. items from 34% to 84%. These tariffs are set to take place on April 10, and China has yet to respond to Trump’s most recent announcement.
In addition to the tariff increase, Trump addressed ongoing global discussions regarding trade, trade barriers, tariffs, currency manipulation, and non-monetary tariffs. He noted that more than 75 countries have contacted U.S. representatives, including those from the Departments of Commerce, Treasury, and the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), to negotiate a solution to these issues.
No country other than China has retaliated in any way. As a result, President Trump has authorized a 90-day pause and a substantial reduction in the reciprocal tariff to 10%, also effective immediately.
Earlier today, reciprocal tariffs went into effect in over 180 countries, including 46% on Vietnam, 20% on the EU, 24% on Japan, 32% on Taiwan, and a host of other countries. This followed Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcements of 10% tariffs on all goods, with higher tariffs equivalent to half of what other countries charge for “worst offenders.”
This most recent move is seen as an attempt to provide a temporary relief period for these countries to negotiate and find an agreeable solution to the subjects being discussed, and it was apparently in Trump’s tariff plan all along.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spoke to the press shortly after the announcement, saying, “It’s all the President’s decision… He had a level in mind to raise the China tariffs and he essentially had the three month pause in mind… No one creates leverage for himself like President Trump.” Bessent said China’s retaliation will cause more problems for them than the U.S., as China’s economy relies heavily on export.
"The willingness of more than 75 countries to come and negotiate everything they saw last Wednesday was a ceiling and now we have a 10% temporary floor," Bessent added. He assured that this was Trump’s strategy all along, and had nothing to do with the stock market crash of recent days.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, followed-up by stating, “The entire world is calling the United States of America and not China… and they need this President in the Oval Office to talk to them.”
In response to the news, the stock market has rocketed up. As of 2:45 ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 6.75%, the S&P 500 gained 8%, and the NASDAQ Composite jumped 10.4%.
(Vlad Schepkov also contributed to this article)
