On April 8th local time in the United States, White House Press Secretary Carolyn Levitt stated that due to China’s failure to cancel the retaliatory tariffs, President Trump decided to impose an additional 50% surcharge on top of the previously levied 20% across-the-board tariff and the 34% reciprocal tariff. As a result, the total tariff on Chinese goods reached 104%.
The tariff will officially come into effect at 12:01 p.m. Beijing time on April 9th (12:01 a.m. Eastern Time in the United States on April 9th).
U.S. Trade Representative Jamison Greer told Congress, “The President has once again made it clear that he will not consider exemptions or exceptions in the short term.”
Additionally, on April 7th, Trump had stated that many countries were approaching his administration to seek “highly customized” tariff agreements with the United States. “They are not off-the-shelf. These are tailored, highly customized deals.”
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury: Over 50 countries have openly and actively responded to Trump’s historic actions aimed at establishing a more fair and prosperous global trading system. We look forward to engaging in meaningful negotiations with them in the coming weeks.
Trump announced the imposition of personalized higher reciprocal tariffs on the country with the largest trade deficit with the United States.
Source: White House Twitter, Guosheng Securities Research Institute
