The trade tango continues, with China announcing a fresh levy on U.S. imports in response to the Trump administration’s latest round of tariffs.
On Friday, Beijing announced it would impose a 34% tariff on U.S. imports, matching President Trump’s latest levy against imports from China into the United States. Beijing’s new measures are expected to take effect on April 10.
As reported in The Dallas Express earlier this week, President Trump announced sweeping new tariffs against U.S. trading partners in an effort to strengthen America’s domestic industry. As part of the announcement, a fresh 34% tariff was added on top of the existing 20% levy charged against imports from China, bringing the total tax to 54%.
A statement from the Chinese embassy on April 4 said the new U.S. trade policy “gravely violates WTO rules, and undermines the rules-based multilateral trading system.” The release went on to say that China “rejects” the latest U.S. measures and “will do what is necessary to defend our legitimate rights and interests.”
“The US claims that it has suffered losses in international trade and is using so-called ‘reciprocity’ as a justification to raise tariffs on all its trading partners. This approach disregards the balance of interests achieved through years of multilateral trade negotiations and ignores the fact that the U.S. has long reaped substantial benefits from international trade. The U.S.’ approach is a typical act of unilateral bullying,” the statement continued.
On Wednesday, while at the White House Rose Garden, President Trump called out trading partners for ransacking American factories and destroying “our once-beautiful American dream.”
“Now it’s our turn to prosper, and in so doing, use trillions and trillions of dollars to reduce our taxes and pay down our national debt,” said the President, per Fox Business.
“And it will all happen very quickly. With today’s action, we are finally going to be able to make America great again, greater than ever before. Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country, and you see it happening already. We will supercharge our domestic industrial base.”