Trump threatens extra tariffs on China, market rout continues

President Trump threatened extra tariffs on China and markets continued sinking amid the brand new US tariff coverage that’s set to completely roll out on Wednesday.

Trump posted that “if China doesn’t withdraw its 34% enhance above their already long run buying and selling abuses by tomorrow, April eighth, 2025, the US will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of fifty%, efficient April ninth. Moreover, all talks with China regarding their requested conferences with us will probably be terminated! Negotiations with different international locations, which have additionally requested conferences, will start going down instantly.”

Trump and his prime advisers retrenched over the weekend, with the president suggesting that fairness markets might must “take medication” and posting that the brand new tariffs are “already in impact, and a good looking factor to behold.”

Trump additionally reiterated that the impetus behind the tariff coverage is commerce deficits: “I spoke to lots of leaders … from everywhere in the world. … I mentioned ‘we’re not going to have deficits together with your nation’ … to me a deficit is a loss. We will have surpluses or, at worst, we’ll be breaking even.”

On April 2, Trump introduced a blanket 10% tariff on all items coming into the US. He additionally added new duties on items from 185 international locations, which the president described because the “worst offenders” when it comes to perceived unfairness on commerce, slated to kick in on April 9.

Learn extra: What Trump’s tariffs imply for the economic system and your pockets

American customs officers started accumulating the brand new 10% tariff on imports from many international locations on Saturday morning after the US inventory market noticed its worst week since 2020.

Varied international locations are nonetheless deciding the way to reply (or not), and corporations have begun adjusting to the brand new actuality — largely by elevating costs. Some international locations responded with new tariffs of their very own: Canada introduced new duties on sure automobiles imported from the US, and China introduced that it will impose countermeasures in opposition to the US beginning April 10, together with a 34% tariff on US items.

The European Union is reportedly getting ready an preliminary set of countermeasures. The tariff fee utilized to the 27-nation bloc of EU international locations underneath the coverage is 20%, and about 70% of the EU’s exports to the US are coated. Trump adviser and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, showing at an occasion on Saturday, mentioned that “Europe and the US ought to transfer, ideally, for my part, to a zero-tariff scenario.”

“That is the one greatest commerce motion of our lifetime,” Kelly Ann Shaw, a commerce lawyer and former White Home commerce adviser throughout Trump’s first time period, informed Reuters.