China Hits Back: Tariffs on US Goods to Soar to 125%

China has announced that it will increase tariffs on U.S. products from 84% to 125% beginning Saturday.

As U.S. President Donald Trump paused tariffs on other countries, the U.S. and China escalated their new trade war. China had notably said that it would fight American tariffs with its countermeasures. Trump’s actions were called “economic bullying,” which led Trump to retaliate this week by continuously increasing tariffs.

Trump’s tariffs against China total 145%. Trump’s announcement on Wednesday that China would face 125% tariffs did not include the 20% tariff on China due to its role in producing fentanyl.

Before the pause, Trump’s actions prompted business executives to warn about a possible recession and some of America’s top trading partners to respond with their import tax. Trump and China raised the tariffs as a tit-for-tat.

In a Friday statement announcing new tariffs, a Finance Ministry spokesperson said: “The U.S. raising alternately abnormally high tariffs against China is a numbers-game, which has no real economic significance and will be a joke throughout the history of world economies.” “However, the US will continue to infringe China’s interest if they insist on it.”

China’s Ministry announced that it would be filing a new lawsuit at the World Trade Organization to challenge the U.S. Tariffs.

Last week, Beijing banned sorghum imports, poultry, and bonemeal from certain American companies. It also increased export controls for rare earth minerals that are critical to various technologies. A few dozen American companies were placed on lists that would prevent Chinese firms from selling dual-use products.

Experts fear that global economic instability will occur due to the size of both economies.

Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, the head of the WTO, said this week that a trade war between China and the U.S. could “severely damage the global economy outlook.”