Trump raises China tariffs to 125%, pauses those on most other nations for 90 days
Markets soar on the move, seemingly an attempt to narrow a US trade war with most of the world to one between Washington and Beijing
Amid a global market meltdown, US President Donald Trump announced a further tariff hike on imports from China – to 125 per cent – on Wednesday, while placing a 90-day pause on punitive levies aimed at most other nations.
Markets surged on the news, with the benchmark S&P 500 index rising almost 10 per cent following Trump’s early afternoon announcement, reversing a nearly 20 per cent drop over the course of four previous trading sessions.
Speaking to reporters after the announcement, Trump said that leading up to the pause in his so-called “reciprocal” tariffs, some 75 countries had been entreating him to make a deal – and he predicted that China under President Xi Jinping would follow suit soon enough.
“China wants to make a deal. They just don’t know how quite to go about it. You know, it’s one of those things, quite proud people,” he said. “President Xi is a proud man. I know him very well. They don’t know quite how to go about it, but they’ll figure it out. They’re in the process of figuring it out.”
Trump said he did not expect to raise the levies on Chinese imports above 125 per cent. “I can’t imagine it. I don’t think we’ll have to do it more,” he said. “No, I don’t see that.”
Asked whether he was trying to form a coalition against China on trade, the president said “no”, blaming former US president Joe Biden’s administration for the state of global trade. “There are a lot of things I’d like China to do,” he added.
Trump also said talks were moving along over the ownership TikTok. The US Congress passed a law last year that forced its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to either sell the app or face a US ban, although Trump has extended the deadline to allow for an eventual deal.