Singapore: Crippling tariffs of at least 104 per cent on Chinese goods bound for the US are now in effect, as are sweeping duties on dozens of other countries, as US President Donald Trump’s campaign to upend global trade systems entered its next phase.
Trump’s barrage of tariffs on at least 50 of America’s trading partners, which he has dubbed the “worst offenders” for running trade surpluses with the US, took effect at 2.01pm AEST on Wednesday.
Stand-off: US President Donald Trump and China President Xi Jinping.Credit: AP
Beijing did not immediately return-fire, but it has vowed that it will not back down from the trade war, declaring on Tuesday that China would “fight to the end” and “resolutely take countermeasures” against the US.
Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are now locked in an escalating feud of tariff brinkmanship that is hammering global markets, upending trade norms, and intensifying fears of a worldwide recession.
As the April 9 midnight deadline approached in America, Trump rebuffed the mounting criticism directed at him on US soil and from abroad, boasting that more than 70 countries were seeking deals to escape the tariffs.
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“I’m telling you, these countries are calling us up, kissing my ass. They are. They’re dying to make a deal,” he told a Republican Party black tie dinner in Washington.
China was hit with the latest duties after Trump added an extra 50 per cent to the country’s tariff scorecard – taking the cumulatively total to at least 104 per cent on all imports – as a punishment for Beijing’s refusal to withdraw its latest counter tariff of 34 per cent on American goods.
The Chinese government has been eager to signal that its export-driven economy can endure the trade pain longer than the US, with Premier Li Qiang saying on Tuesday that Beijing had ample policy tools up its sleeve to “completely offset adverse external impacts”.
