China vowed on Tuesday to “fight to the end” if President Donald Trump follows through on a threatened 50% tariff hike, rejecting calls to drop its countermeasures and setting the stage for a high-stakes standoff between the world’s top two economies.
If neither side backs down, total new U.S. levies on Chinese goods this year could rise to 104% by Wednesday, putting pressure on Beijing to respond as Chinese President Xi Jinping prepares to meet Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez ahead of a tour of Southeast Asia with global supply chains in jeopardy.
But with Trump’s previous tariff increases already squeezing Chinese exporters’ margins to the point of suffocation, further hikes would only serve to underscore Washington’s appetite for brinkmanship and its desire to cut China out of the world’s biggest consumer market as a matter of principle, analysts say.
“The U.S. side’s threat to escalate tariffs against China is a mistake on top of a mistake, once again exposing the American side’s blackmailing nature,” China’s commerce ministry said in a statement.
“If the U.S. insists on having its way, China will fight to the end.”
Trump said he would impose the additional 50% duty on U.S. imports from China on Wednesday if Beijing did not withdraw the 34% tariffs it had imposed on U.S. products last week.
Those Chinese levies had come in response to 34% “reciprocal” duties announced by Trump, which were in addition to 20% he imposed earlier this year, and result in the average U.S. tariff on Chinese goods rising to 76%.
REUTERS
