20 percent forget: US tariffs against China at 145 percent

The US tariffs against China, who was brought on the way by President Donald Trump, amount to a total of 145 percent – and not 125 percent, as the White House had previously announced. This was confirmed by an employee of the US government center in Washington. In the case of the previous information, already introduced tariffs of 20 percent were not included, which Trump had raised for China’s role in the manufacture of the drug Fentanyl in recent months.

The sparse announcement and the details afterwards

Trump has been a tough trading policy course for China since taking office. On Wednesday, he announced on the Truth Social Online platform to further increase the tariffs to imports from China to a total of 125 percent, while at the same time suspending certain tariffs for other countries. Trump justified the step by making China towards the world markets towards « lack of respect ». The White House initially only sparse information about the step.

It was only when the US government center published the formal, written order for the customs increase that the gap was noticeable when calculating the China tariffs. Because the arrangement shows that Trump, at 125 percent, only referred to the special levies that he had imposed as part of his so-called mutual tariffs since the beginning of April. These are special levies in response to commercial barriers in other countries for imports from the USA.

The first round of tariffs against China

In the months before, however, the Trump government had already imposed tariffs against China with a different reasoning – because of the role of the country in the production of the drug Fentanyl, which is smuggled into the USA on a large scale. With this reason, Trump announced tariffs of 10 percent on imports from China at the beginning of February. In a second step, they were then doubled to 20 percent. And this 20 percent continue – must therefore be added to the 125 percent.

This means a further tightening of the trade conflict between the two largest economies in the world. In response to the US customs duties of the past few days, Beijing had made it clear that it was ready in the customs dispute to « fight until the end ». China accuses the USA « extortion ».

The reaction and non-reaction from Beijing

On Thursday, the announced Chinese retaliation duties officially came into force on US imports. For imports from the USA to China, special levies of 84 percent are now using. However, Beijing announced this step before Trump’s latest escalation.

So far, no response from China has yet to increase the increase in US tariffs to 125 percent – not even to the new calculation with total tariffs in the amount of 145 percent.

Despite the great tensions, Trump expressed himself optimistic that in the end it would be possible to find a negotiation solution in the trade conflict with China. « We would like to reach an agreement, » said the Republican at a cabinet meeting in Washington. With the current procedure, the previous imbalances in the trade with China would only be balanced, he argued and emphasized: « I think that in the end we will work out something that is very good for both countries. »