China increases tariffs on US at 125%

China said it would increase its retaliatory tariffs on US goods to 125 per cent, in the latest escalation of the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies, El.kz reports citing ft.com.

China’s finance ministry said the increase from current additional levels of 84 per cent would take effect from April 12.

But the ministry added that it would ignore any further US tariff rises on Chinese exports, “given that at the current tariff level, there is no market acceptance for US goods exported to China”.

"The US’s imposition of abnormally high tariffs on China seriously violates international economic and trade rules, basic economic laws and common sense, and is completely unilateral bullying and coercion,” it said. The move is the latest in a week-long tit-for-tat between the two countries that has seen US President Donald Trump’s administration isolate China after pausing some tariffs on other trading partners. It comes alongside a mounting wave of shipping disruption that threatens to break down international trade between the countries, with cancellations of shipments set to disrupt transpacific voyages.

In his first major diplomatic encounter since this week’s outbreak of a fully-blown trade war, President Xi Jinping on Friday met Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in Beijing. State news agency Xinhua quoted Xi as telling Sánchez that “there are no winners in a tariff war and that confronting the world will only lead to self-isolation”. The world was “undergoing accelerated changes unseen in a century, with overlapping risks and challenges”, the Chinese president said.

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