China, labelled Donald Trump’s tariff strategy “joking,” has rebutted the US president’s decision to screen the US second-largest economy for 145% of its duties.
“Even if the US continues to impose even higher tariffs, it will no longer be economically important and fall as a joke in the history of the world economy,” China’s Treasury Ministry said.
“If the US continues to play numbers games with tariffs, China will not respond,” the ministry said. But they kept the doors open for other kinds of retaliation, warning once again that the country was ready to fight the United States until the very end.
The department also accused Trump and his administration of violating international economic and trade rules. Nevertheless, it raised tariffs on US imports from 84% to 125%, not before saying, “US exports to China are no longer commercially viable.”
“The US threat to escalate tariffs on China is a mistake in addition to the mistake of reexposing the threatening nature of the US,” the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said earlier.
China’s exporters’ profits will be wiped out
Dan Wang, a Chinese expert at Eurasia Group, told Reuters since Trump placed a 35% obligation on Chinese exporters’ profits.
“China, which passed a 35% tariff level, should not export to the US at all. Trump has been able to continue raising tariffs up to 1,000%, but with no trade, there is no harm,” Wang added.
“Europe is now China’s most profitable market,” she added.
Given that China is the third-largest buyer of US goods worth $150 billion in 2024, Trump’s trade war against China could hurt American producers more than China.
But China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wetoer reiterated his position that if the Trump administration decides to sit at the table and hold a threatless negotiation, he will leave his government’s doors open.
