China has raised import taxes on US goods to 125% as the trade war with the US over Donald Trump’s global tariffs escalates.
President Xi Jinping is also asking the European Union to join China in opposing what he referred to as bullying from the US.
Beijing’s State Council Tariff Commission while announcing the retaliatory tariffs on Friday argued that the US’s imposition of abnormally high tariffs on China seriously violates international trade rules and basic economic laws.
The council also revealed that the new levy will take effect on Saturday.
Recall that China and the US have been engaged in a tit-for-tat tariff war, with US President Donald Trump imposing more tariffs on Beijing earlier this week, even as he put a pause on tariffs for other nations after US markets reacted negatively to the decision.
Trump’s universal tariffs on China now total 145 percent. When he announced on Wednesday that China faced 125 percent tariffs, he did not include a 20 percent tariff on China tied to its role in fentanyl production.
Meanwhile, China’s Ministry of Commerce has announced it was filing a new lawsuit with the World Trade Organization challenging the US tariffs, adding that the US is to blame for the global economic “turbulence” unleashed by Trump.
In the same vein, reactions have continued to trail the trade war and tariff increases.
Analysts are saying the tariff increases between China and the US are now becoming almost meaningless.
That is because the levies on each other’s imports are so high that they already impede much of the trade flowing between the two.
