(Al Jazeera Media Network) China has announced it would raise tariffs on all United States goods to 125%, deepening a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
“The US’s imposition of abnormally high tariffs on China seriously violates international trade rules, basic economic laws and common sense,” Beijing’s State Council Tariff Commission said in a statement announcing the retaliatory tariffs on Friday.
The new levy will take effect on Saturday, the statement said.
China and the US have been engaged in a tit-for-tat tariff war, with US President Donald Trump imposing more tariffs on Beijing earlier this week, even as he put a pause on tariffs for other nations.
Trump’s universal tariffs on China now total 145%. When he announced on Wednesday that China faced 125% tariffs, he did not include a 20% tariff on China tied to its role in fentanyl production.
Meanwhile, China’s Ministry of Commerce has announced it was filing a new lawsuit with the World Trade Organization (WTO) challenging the US tariffs, adding that the US is to blame for the global economic “turbulence” unleashed by Trump.
Washington’s levies “(caused) the current world economy, global markets and multilateral trading systems to suffer serious shocks and severe turbulence,” a ministry spokesperson said. “The US should bear full responsibility for this.”
The ministry urged the US to “take a big step forward in eliminating the so-called ‘reciprocal tariffs’ and completely correct its wrongful practices.”
“The US alternately raising abnormally high tariffs on China has become a numbers game, which has no practical economic significance, and will become a joke in the history of the world economy,” a spokesman said.
“However, if the US insists on continuing to substantially infringe on China’s interests, China will resolutely counter and fight to the end,” the spokesman added.