Donald Trump has threatened additional 50 per cent tariffs on China if Beijing does not withdraw its retaliatory levies on Washington by Tuesday.
“If China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday.
The Trump administration hit China with 34 per cent in additional duties last week, stacked on top of the 20 per cent levies it had already imposed. In response, China increased levies on US goods by an additional 34 per cent, though it held back some firepower for any negotiations.
Trump threatened to cancel all negotiations with China unless Beijing scaled back the levies: “all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated!”, he said. However, people familiar with the situation in Beijing and Washington said there had been no serious discussions of any kind between the two capitals.
Trump’s threat to sharply boost duties on China, the world’s biggest exporter, came on a day of acute volatility in US markets.
The blue-chip S&P 500 share index swung in a wide range, but was down about 2 per cent at lunchtime in New York. Apple, which is heavily exposed to China through its supply chains, dropped nearly 6 per cent.
Commodity markets were also under pressure, with Brent crude, the international marker, and West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, each down about 2 per cent. Copper, a widely used industrial metal that is viewed as a proxy for sentiment on the global economy, fell 4 per cent.
