Donald Trump had said this week that if China did not withdraw its 34% tariff reciprocal tariff by noon today, Eastern Time, he would implement another 50% tariff starting at midnight Tuesday.
US President Donald Trump has decided to raise tariffs on China to a total of 104% starting midnight tonight in response to Beijing's retaliation for his tariff increases, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox Business on Tuesday.
The Republican leader had said this week that if China did not withdraw its 34% tariff reciprocal tariffs by noon today, Eastern Time (4:00 p.m. GMT), he would implement an additional 50% tariff starting at midnight Tuesday that would subject China's exports to the US to tariffs of up to 104%.
According to Fox Business reporter Edward Lawrence, citing White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, these new tariff increases on China would take effect at one minute past midnight tonight.
Before that deadline, the president had assured this Tuesday that China "desperately" wants a tariff agreement, but he considered that they don't know how to begin negotiations and said that the White House was waiting for a call from Chinese President Xi Jinping.
"Blackmailing nature"
Today, Chinese authorities expressed their "firm condemnation" of what they called the "blackmailing nature" of the United States. Last Friday, China deployed a battery of countermeasures to the tariffs announced last week by Trump, which raised the levies on Chinese products to at least 54%.
These include 34% tariffs on imports from the United States, sanctions against some U.S. companies, restrictions on the export of certain rare earths, the suspension of imports of chicken and sorghum products from certain U.S. companies, and the opening of antitrust and antidumping investigations against U.S. companies and products.
China also filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against the United States for "reciprocal tariffs" imposed on all its trading partners through the dispute settlement mechanism.
On April 2, Trump announced global tariffs of 10% that went into effect last Saturday, and higher rates for other regions and countries, such as China and the European Union (EU), that will begin to be applied on the 9th.
