China has announced additional tariffs on US goods to 125%, according to Reuters.
That is up from the previous level of 84%.
China’s finance ministry is reported as saying that if the US insists on continuing to infringe upon China’s interest in a substantive way, China will resolutely take countermeasures and fight to the end.
Analysts are saying the tariff increases between China and the US are now becoming almost meaningless.
That’s because the levies on each other’s imports are so high that they already impede much of the trade flowing between the two.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s diary is filled with meetings with other nations as Beijing looks to forge new trade routes and shore up opposition to Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Today, he had a meeting Spain’s prime minister and called on the EU to combine with China to “jointly resist the unilateral bullying practices” of the Trump administration.
Next week, he will visit Vietnam, Cambodia, and Malaysia – all countries currently marked for devastating tariffs from the US after the 90-day pause on them is over.
Beijing is digging in because it knows it can – it has options and doesn’t need to rely only on trade with the US.
When it comes to Chinese consumers they can easily switch to local brands if imported American products are too expensive.
Chinese companies with specific links to trade with the US are hurting the most, but for everybody else, the tariffs are more of an inconvenience.
China has considerable ability to ride this tariff war out and we could see it digging in for as long as it takes.
French Prime Minister François Bayrou says it is a “terribly dangerous” idea to think that China can replace the US as a trade partner.
He also urges European Union members to stick together in the face of uncertainty from Trump’s tariffs.
“When the president of the United States raises tariffs, it is an earthquake, but when the president of the United States 48 hours later drops tariffs, it is another earthquake,” he says.
It’s the latest comment from France on the tariffs, with French President Emmanuel Macron earlier saying the partial suspension of them for 90 days was an “open door” to negotiations with America.