Donald Trump hits China with 104% additional tariffs amid ongoing trade war, take effect from…

White House Press Secretary announced on Tuesday that a steep 104% tariff on Chinese goods officially kicked in at noon (Eastern Time). The extra charges will start being collected from April 9, according to Fox Business reporter Edward Lawrence. This move follows President Donald Trump’s earlier remarks that he was still waiting to hear back from China before moving ahead with such high tariffs. However, some officials in his team have made it clear that China is not a top priority in the upcoming trade talks.

Markets, which had been shaky due to fears of a recession and global trade disruptions, showed signs of bouncing back after Trump first floated the idea of these new tariffs on April 2. Despite a recent major selloff that wiped out trillions of dollars, U.S. stocks began to recover slightly.

So far, Trump has already placed a per cent  tariff on nearly all goods coming into the US Now, he’s planning to increase duties even further—some could go as high as 50 per cent—starting Wednesday, April 9.

China has stood its ground, calling the US tariff threats “blackmail” and promising to “fight to the end” after President Trump said he might raise tariffs as high as 104% in response to China’s own tariffs announced last week.

Even with tensions running high, Trump hinted there’s still a chance for a deal. “China also wants to make a deal, badly, but they don’t know how to start. We’re waiting for their call. It will happen!” he posted on social media.

In the final hours before the new tariffs were set to be fully enforced, Trump reportedly focused on talks with US allies. But when it came to China, any hope of a last-minute agreement seemed out of reach.

Journey from 10to 104 in under a week

Up until last month, the US was charging a 10 per cent tariff on goods coming from China. But President Trump argued that this wasn’t fair, saying China had been “robbing” the U.S. economy for years by charging much higher tariffs on American products. He called China a “tariff abuser.”

Last week, Trump introduced a new plan called the “reciprocal tariff” policy. Basically, the U.S. would start charging other countries around half of whatever tariff they impose on American goods. For China, this meant an extra 34 per cent on top of the original 10 per cent, bringing the total tariff to 44 per cent.

Soon after the April 2 announcement, the White House declared a “national emergency” tied to security risks from ongoing trade deficits. As a result, a baseline 10% tariff was slapped on all countries, pushing China’s overall tariff rate to 54 per cent.

Now, with an additional 50 per cent tariff announced specifically for China today, Beijing is facing a massive 104 per cent tariff — nearly double what it was just a week ago.

Still, President Trump left the door open for talks. On his Truth Social account, he posted, “China also wants to make a deal, badly, but they don’t know how to get it started. We are waiting for their call.”

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