Tit for Tat: China slaps 125% duty on imports from US
12 Apr 2025
China on Friday announced a hike in import duty on US goods and services from 84 per cent to 125 per cent, effective Saturday (12 April 2025), after US President Donald Trump last week raised tariffs for China to a record 145 per cent.
Chinese President Xi Jinping also urged the European Union to take counter measures to resist the "unilateral bullying" by President Donald Trump, in a bid to further escalate the trade war started by the US administration.
During a bilateral meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Beijing, Xi also suggested that the European Union and China open a joint front to resist President Trump’s unilateral bullying.
He said China and Europe have the responsibilities of safeguarding fairness and justice in international trade and should jointly resist irresponsible actions of the Trump administration.
The US should bear full responsibility for the catastrophic consequences that the new levies have brought to the world economy, global markets and multilateral trading system, China’s commerce ministry stated in a release.
The ministry also said the 90-day partial freeze on tariffs for other countris is President Trump’s tactic to isolate China and cause disarray among nations.
China’s announcement of tit-for-tat tariff action shook US and global markets. US stocks sank, giving up much of the gains that the Trump administration helped to achieve. The dollar also lost ground as markets feared that an escalation of trade war would hurt US economy as well.
China, however, said it would ignore any further tariff action by the United States but the announced tariffs would come into effect immediately.
But, in signs that China’s appeal did not go well with all of the EU, French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said that while it was naive and dangerous to think the United States can take the role of China as a trade partner, the European Union should not also buy the idea that China can replace the US. Rather, he said, members of the bloc should stand united amidst global trade tensions.
