China Retaliates Against Trump’s Tariffs, Imposes 34% Tax on US Goods

China Retaliates Against Trump’s Tariffs: The escalating trade war came to light when China announced a series of retaliatory measures in response to the tariffs levied by U.S. President Donald Trump. Among these were extra tariffs on all imports by China and restrictions on exports of certain rare earths to the United States, with the total now amounting to 34 percent.⁣

Trump announced new tariffs of 34 percent against China, on top of the 20 percent tariffs imposed earlier this year, for a combined total of 54 percent.

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The Chinese Ministry of Finance stated that the additional tariffs would be introduced on April 10. Previously, while responding to U.S. levies of 10 percent on its products, China had imposed tariffs of 15 percent on coal and LNG imports from the U.S.

From April 4, China has suspended exports of medium and heavy rare earths-from samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and many others to the U.S.

“The purpose of the Chinese government’s implementation of export controls on relevant items in accordance with the law is to better safeguard national security and interests, and to fulfil international obligations such as non-proliferation,” the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.

In the meantime, China also has added 16 companies from the U.S. to its export control list, which prohibits export-range of dual-use items to affected firms.

Another 11 firms in the U.S. were added to the list of "unreliable entities," which allows for punitive action to be taken against foreign entities. The targeted firms include Skydio Inc. and BRINC Drones, which Beijing claims sold arms to the democratically governed Taiwan, which China regards as its territory.

The Chinese government alleged on Friday that it had launched a formal complaint against the new US tariffs before the World Trade Organization, arguing that the measures are in violation of WTO rules and requesting consultations.

"China has filed the WTO complaint with respect to the United States measures," said the Permanent Mission of China to the World Trade Organization. The new tariffs blatantly violate WTO rules, it added.

According to the Chinese Commerce Ministry, the targeted companies had severely undermined China's sovereignty, security, and development interests; therefore, these companies would be banned from any new investments and from engaging in any import and export business activities in China.

Bilateral agricultural trade also took another blow when, with immediate effect, the Chinese customs imposed a suspension of sorghum imports from C&D (USA) Inc. and poultry and bone meal from three U.S. companies.

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Beijing has also kicked off an anti-dumping investigation into imports of CT tubes used in medicine from the United States and India, while, at the same time, investigating the competitiveness of the medical CT tube market itself.

U.S. stock futures were sharply lower Friday, indicating more losses to come on Wall Street on account of Trump's extensive taxes that wiped $2.4 trillion off U.S. equity valuation.

Pre-market trading was weak for Big Techs, especially Apple and Nvidia, who depend heavily on China for manufacturing their products.

In Japan, with whom the U.S. has very close trade ties, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba termed tariffs a "national crisis" as a steep sell-off of banking shares Friday was putting the Tokyo stock market on track for its worst week in years. European shares were also set for their biggest weekly drop in three years.

Marco Rubio though, this time around, was really denying any economic crash, saying to reporters that the change really had markets reacting, and that would be adjusting itself.

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