A few hours have been active 104% duties on all Chinese goods imported in the United States. These will be added to those of 20% already in force before Trump’s settlement to the White House, reaching a total that touches 125%. The measure, announced on Tuesday 8 April by the spokesman for the White House Karoline Leavitt, is a retaliation against Beijing’s decision to impose 34% duties on the goods that China matters from the United States, a measure that in turn is the direct reaction to the duties against China announced by Washington during the “Liberation Day“of 2 April last. To give a measure of the business volumes at stake, it should be remembered that the China in 2024 It was the second imported country for the United States, for a total of 439 billion dollars of goods. Beijing, on the other hand, has imported US goods worth 144 billion dollars.
The skepticism of world bags
After days of very heavy losses in bags around the world, the umpteenth escalation of the global commercial war declared by the Trump administration dragged the prices of Wall Streetwhich on Tuesday closed with All the lists in red. The Dow Jones (the best known stock of the New York Stock Exchange) fell by 320 points, equal to 0.84%. The Standard & Poor 500 index dropped by 1.57%. The Nasdaq technological price list recorded a 2.15%descent.
Also the lists of the main ones Asian bags have opened with great uncertainty On Wednesday 9 April: the Japanese Nikkei 225 who opened 3%losses. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng also dropped by 3%. The Kospi of South Korea and the ASX 200 index of Australia both fell by about 1%.
The zeal of the Trump Administration
While the financial world shows a lot distrust in the economic policy of the Trump administrationthe President’s intention to continue with a strategy that for the newspaper L’Aconomist “has reported the commercial policies of the United States in late nineteenth century”.
Despite the unsatisfied articles of various American and international news on the matter, the spokesman for the White House Karoline Leavitt he convinced that::
Countries like China, who have chosen to respond and try to insist on mistreating American workers, are making a mistake. The President Trump has a steel backbone and will not give in to.
Furthermore, according to what was written on Tuesday 8 April by the same Trump on his social media Truth“China wants to make an agreement very muchbut he doesn’t know where to start. We are waiting for their phone call. It will happen!».
As if that were not enough, a few hours ago he returned the dose: during a fundraising dinner for the Republican Party, the president said, regarding the states that are “doing everything” to deal with him and avoid duties:
These countries call us, they kiss me the cu*oare dying from the desire to make an agreement.
The attack on online trade
In addition to 104% duties on Chinese imports, Tuesday evening Donald Trump also signed an executive order that Eliminates the so -called “exemption de minimis” on shipments from China towards the United States for a value of less than 800 dollars. According to a previous measure, these goods would have been taxed by 30% starting from May 2, but now this percentage has been set at 90%. This means a significant increase in prices For all US consumers who order Products on online platforms such as Shein, Temu or Aliexpress.
The reaction of China to the US duties
The increasingly serious threats and measures against him do not seem to frighten the Chinese president Xi Jinping. His government has announced that he is studying several measures to “surgically” affect the US strategic sectors. For example, there is the hypothesis of a significant increase in duties on US agricultural products such as soy and sorghumthe ban on importing US poultry, the suspension of cooperation on the contrast to the illegal sale of the components to produce the Fenestanilthe limitation of access to the service marketnarrowing or even the Total prohibition of the import of US films And the investigation on how much American companies have gained from their intellectual property in China. As the official press releases of several Chinese ministries have summarized, including that of foreign and trade, if the intention of the United States is really to fight a commercial war “China’s response will continue until the end”.
