China announces countermeasures by raising tariffs on US goods from 84% to 125%

China announced countermeasures on Friday, raising tariffs on US goods from 84% to 125% starting on Saturday.

The US and China have escalated a trade war by raising tariffs even as US President Donald Trump hit a pause on tariffs for other countries.

Mr Trump’s universal tariffs on China total 145%.

When he announced on Wednesday that China faced 125% tariffs, he did not include a 20% tariff on China tied to its role in fentanyl production.

“A joke”

“The US alternately raising abnormally high tariffs on China has become a numbers game, which has no practical economic significance, and will become a joke in the history of the world economy,” a commerce ministry spokesman said in a statement announcing the countermeasure.

“However, if the US insists on continuing to substantially infringe on China’s interests, China will resolutely counter and fight to the end.”

China’s Commerce Ministry said it was filing another legal case with the World Trade Organisation on the raising of US tariffs

Prediction

Beijing last week suspended sorghum, poultry and bonemeal imports from some American companies, put more export controls on rare earth minerals, critical for various technologies, and put a few dozen American companies on lists that would prevent Chinese companies from selling them dual-use goods.

Given the size of the two economies, experts fear global economic turmoil.

The head of the WTO, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said earlier this week that the trade war between the US and China could “could severely damage the global economic outlook”.