- Saturday, April 12, 2025
China has warned that should the US persist in substantially undermining its interests, Beijing will take firm countermeasures and fight to the end
By: India Weekly
CHINA on Friday (11) continued its tit-for-tat move against the Trump administration’s tariffs by hiking its additional levies on imports from the US to 125 per cent against duties of 145 per cent by America even as it evinced interest in dialogue with Washington to resolve the impasse.
Announcing an additional 125 per cent tariff, China’s Customs Tariff Commission said, “Even if the US imposes higher tariffs, it would no longer make economic sense and ultimately go down as a joke in world economic history.”
“Given that it’s already impossible for the Chinese market to accept US imports at the current tariff level if the United States imposes further tariffs on Chinese products, China will ignore it,” it said.
However, should the US persist in substantially undermining China’s interests, Beijing will take firm countermeasures and fight to the end, the commission added.
China’s new tariffs of 125 per cent against US imports will be effective from Saturday, it said.
The announcement follows the US move to raise the “reciprocal tariffs” on Chinese imports to 125 per cent.
The US later confirmed the total tariff on Chinese products was 145 per cent with the inclusion of 20 per cent levies announced by Trump soon after he took over power in January this year.
Trump’s heavy tariffs left China to wage a lone battle as he paused tariffs against all other countries.
Also, similar to previous tariff hikes, China has filed a lawsuit against the US with the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) dispute settlement mechanism, a Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson said.
Chinese president Xi Jinping on Friday (10) appealed to the European Union (EU) to “jointly resist the unilateral bullying” by Washington.
“There is no winner in a tariff war, and going against the world will only result in self-isolation”, Xi said in his first comments since Trump began imposing tariffs on China and a host of other countries sending shockwaves around the world.
In his meeting with prime minister Pedro Sanchez of Spain which is part of the 27-member block, Xi called on China and the EU to fulfil their international responsibilities, work together to safeguard economic globalisation and the international trading environment, and jointly resist unilateral bullying, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
“China and the EU are firm supporters of economic globalisation and free trade,” Xi said.
This not only safeguards the legitimate rights and interests of China and the EU, but also serves to maintain fairness and justice within the international community while upholding international rules and order, Xi said. (PTI)
