China fires back with fresh 50% tariff in rebuke to Trump’s escalation

China will impose 50 per cent tariffs on all American imports, in addition to existing levies, in response to a similar level of tariff increases on its goods from US President Donald Trump, further escalating a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. At the same time, China pledged to release new supportive policies promptly amid external shocks.

Trump’s action, which brought the cumulative total of additional import duties to 104 per cent since he took office in January, took effect at noon on 9 April. Beijing’s levy is due to take effect at noon on 10 April, and it would bring cumulative additional tariffs raised by Beijing to 84 per cent.

“China will firmly defend its interests, multilateral trade system and international economic order,” the Ministry of Commerce said in an online statement. Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at Dutch investment bank ING, said it was clear China “is ready to fight to the end in the tariff war after earlier measured responses during the fentanyl tariffs were met with more aggression. We are moving into the end game in terms of the tariff escalation,” Song said.

And Zhang Zhiwei, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management in Hong Kong, said: “China sent a clear signal that it will keep its stance on trade policies, despite higher tariffs in the US.” In addition to filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization over the new US tariffs, the ministry put six US companies – Shield AI, Sierra Nevada, Cyberlux, Edge Autonomy Operations, Group W and Hudson Technologies – on its unreliable-entity list. Also, export controls were placed on 12 American companies, barring Chinese companies from supplying them with dual-use items – goods that have both civilian and military applications. Those facing restrictions are American Photonics, Novotech, Echodyne, Marvin Engineering, Exovera, Teledyne Brown Engineering, BRINC Drones, SYNEXXUS, Firestorm Labs, Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems, Domo Tactical Communications and Insitu.

Major commodity indices dropped shortly after China’s fightback. The Baltic Dry Index fell by more than 6 per cent, while Brent crude extended losses, having already dropped more than 6 per cent to below US$60 per barrel.

With China taking action, former US Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers said on his X account that “developments in the last 24 hours suggest we may be headed for a serious financial crisis wholly induced by US government tariff policy. The only way to mitigate these risks is for the President @realDonald Trump to back off his current path. This is the first US bout of US financial instability caused by the US government,” he said.