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Xi Jinping’s China will impose 84% tariffs on U.S. goods from Thursday, up from the 34% previously announced, the finance ministry said on Wednesday.
The ministry said these changes will take effect from midnight local time (5am UK time) April 10.
It added that it was putting export controls on 12 more American companies, and had added six more US firms to its list of ‘unreliable entities’ that are largely banned from doing business in China or with Chinese companies.
These companies have not yet been announced.
This is the latest escalation in the rapidly growing trade war between the US and China, which began after US president Donald Trump slapped imports from Xi Jinping’s nation with an effective 104% levy.
The levies were part of a mass imposition of reciprocal tariffs on American trading partners, who Trump accused of exploiting the US.
Imports to the US from almost all nations on Earth were hit with a baseline 10% levy, with Trump’s administration increasing the percentage based on trade deficits.
Trump’s tariffs have caused global markets to drastically crash. So far today, the FTSE 100, an index fund detailing the value of Britain’s 100 largest firms, dropped 3.6% at time of publication.
Germany’s DAX was down 4%, while the French CAC 40 was down 4%. US index funds are also expected to fall when they open at 2.30pm UK time.
China today told the World Trade Organisation that the US’ decision to impose these mass tariffs threatens to further destabilise global trade.
Xi Jinping’s (pictured) China will impose 84% tariffs on U.S. goods from Thursday, up from the 34% previously announced
Donald Trump slapped imports into the US from other nations with a wide array of tariffs
‘The situation has dangerously escalated. …As one of the affected members, China expresses grave concern and firm opposition to this reckless move,’ China said in a statement to the WTO on Wednesday that was sent to Reuters by the Chinese mission to the WTO.
The financial world has been rattled by Trump’s tariffs, and have begun to seriously question his decisions.
Dario Perkins, an economist at macroeconomic forecasting consultancy firm TS Lombard, told Bloomberg earlier this week: ‘For the first time in my career, I’m hearing widespread skepticism about the competency of US policymakers.
‘This isn’t about politics… And it isn’t about ‘policy mistakes’… It is about recklessness.
‘That is why many global investors are also making the comparison with the UK’s “Liz Truss moment”.’
Earlier today, the Bank of England said Trump’s tariffs have ‘contributed to a material increase in the risk to global growth’ and financial stability.
In the central bank’s Financial Stability Report, published hours before China announced the retaliatory tariff measures, it said that the economic hostility between the US and other nations has increased ‘uncertainty… for inflation globally.’
But it stressed that ‘UK household and corporate borrowers have remained resilient’, adding that it ‘maintained its judgement’ that British banks would still be able to support households and businesses even if the economy turned ‘substantially worse than expected.’
More to follow.