As the fallout continues over President Donald Trump’s severe tariffs against virtually all U.S. trading partners, Trump threatened that the U.S. will apply an additional 50% tariff on imports from China on Wednesday if Beijing doesn’t remove the retaliatory tariffs it placed on the U.S. by Tuesday.
According to ABC News, a senior White House official said that the additional 50% tariff would be in addition to the 34% reciprocal tariff Trump announced last week and the 20% already in place, making for a potential total of 104%.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “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. Therefore, if China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th. Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated! Negotiations with other countries, which have also requested meetings, will begin taking place immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
On Monday, the S&P 500 opened down 4%, falling below 20% from its most recent high and entering “bear market” territory — a period of prolonged decline. The tech-heavy Nasdaq declined more than 4.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 3.78% or 1,200 points.
Trump announced on April 2nd (on what he called “Liberation Day”) that the U.S. would implement ‘reciprocal tariffs’ on imports from about 90 nations, adding to a 10% global tax applied to all products shipped to the U.S. The president said the new taxes are needed to erase trade imbalances between the U.S. and other countries, ranging from China to members of the European Union. nIn response to the United States’ 34% tariff on Chinese imports – which is set to go into effect on April 9 – Beijing last week announced it would add a 34% tariff on imports of all U.S. products beginning April 10.
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