Trump threatens extra tariffs on China, opens negotiations with different nations

President Trump threatened extra tariffs on China and markets bounced round 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% improve 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 likely be terminated! Negotiations with different nations, which have additionally requested conferences, will start happening instantly.”

These negotiations with different nations have apparently begun. Talking on the White Home on Monday afternoon, Trump mentioned: “We will get honest offers and good offers with each nation, and if we do not then we’ll don’t have anything to do with them.”

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

On Sunday, Trump reiterated that the impetus behind the tariff coverage is commerce deficits: “I spoke to quite a lot of leaders … from all around the world. … I mentioned ‘we’re not going to have deficits along 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 nations, which the president described because the “worst offenders” by way of perceived unfairness in commerce, slated to kick in on April 9.

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

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

The European Union is getting ready an preliminary set of countermeasures. The tariff fee utilized to the 27-nation bloc of EU nations below 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 state of affairs.”

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