China to Impose 34% Tariff on U.S. Imports Starting April 10 in Response to Trump Administration’s Trade Measures
China's Finance Ministry on Friday announced it will levy a 34% tax on all American imports, effective April 10, in response to the tariffs set by the Trump administration earlier this week.
"China calls on the US to cancel the unilateral tariffs at the earliest opportunity and resolve the issues in a fair, respectful and cooperative way through dialogue," the ministry said, quoting a Google translation.
It added that it disapproved of Washington's move to charge an additional 34% reciprocal levies against China — making the cumulative U.S. tariffs against the nation a total of 54% — as being "inconsistent with rules of international trade" and "seriously" harming Chinese interests, and jeopardizing "global economic development and the stability of the chain of production and supply as well," as per a report through Google-translated Chinese state news wire Xinhua.
In addition, China placed another 11 American companies on the “unreliable entities list” by the Beijing government, which they were accused by the government of breaching regulatory rules or contractual obligations. China's Commerce Ministry placed 16 American entities on the export control list and announced that it would exercise export control over seven kinds of rare earth materials including samarium, gadolinium and terbium.
Beijing, which also maintained a fragile commercial relation with Washington during the first term of President Trump, had issued a warning that it would undertake "resolute counter-measures" for the sake of protecting its own interests after the White House revealed its new wide-ranging tariffs on Wednesday.
Other American trading partners had restrained from retaliating with tariffs in the hope of future negotiations, with the European Union still expressing a willingness to retaliate. Annual bilateral levies between the two nations are scheduled to have a bearing on a $582.4 billion worth of U.S.-China trade in merchandise in 2024, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative estimated.
Analysts anticipate the U.S.' protectionist economic policy will push China to other partners and have China employ more stimulus policies in a bid to boost the economy. China has been fighting a property crisis as well as being plagued by weak business and consumer sentiment since the latter part of the Covid-19 pandemic.
China's retaliatory tariffs on Friday accelerated losses in global markets already plunged into chaos by concerns over inflationary, recessionary and global growth economic threats as a result of the White House's tariffs.
American stock futures dropped into their session lows when the retaliatory tariffs were revealed by China. Dow Jones Industrial Average contracts were down by 900 points, representing a decrease of 2.2%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures decreased by 2.3% and 2.6% accordingly.
European shares were also down sharply on the news. By 11:27 a.m. London time, the pan-region Stoxx 600 index had dropped by 4.5%, building on early declines, with the European banking sector down more than 9.5%.
