China vows ‘countermeasures’ to sweeping new U.S. tariffs

President Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with China’s President Xi Jinping. File.
| Photo Credit: AP

China on Thursday (April 3, 2025) said it “firmly opposes” sweeping new US tariffs on its exports, vowing “countermeasures” to protect its rights and interests.

U.S. President Donald Trump has ignited a potentially ruinous global trade war after imposing 10% levies on imports from around the world and harsh extra duties on key trading partners.

Mr. Trump unveiled particularly stinging tariffs of 34% on China, one of its largest trading partners.

The commerce ministry in Beijing said in a statement that those tariffs “do not comply with international trade rules and seriously harm the legitimate rights and interests of the relevant parties”.

It urged Washington to “immediately cancel” them, warning they “endanger global economic development”, hurting U.S. interests and international supply chains.

It also accused the United States of a “typical unilateral bullying practice”.

The tariffs come on top of a 20% rate imposed last month.

At a weekly briefing Thursday, the Commerce Ministry slammed Washington’s “protectionism and bullying”.

But it also said that the two sides were “maintaining communication” over sources of contention in trade and economic issues.

Beijing’s Foreign Ministry also warned the United States that protectionism has no “exit ramp” and noted the broad international opposition to the measures.

China previously responded to U.S. tariffs with levies of up to 15% on a range of U.S. agricultural goods including soybeans, pork and chicken.

Chen Wenling, chief economist at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges in Beijing, told AFP that Beijing could potentially impose export controls of critical and rare minerals to the United States in response.

“The United States has become a high-tariff nation, and its status as the flagbearer of free trade has diminished,” Mr. Chen said.

U.S. duties have threatened to harm China’s fragile economic recovery as it struggles with a long-running debt crisis in the property sector and persistently low consumption.

‘No winner in a trade war’

An intensified trade war will likely mean China cannot peg its hopes for strong economic growth this year on its exports, which reached record highs in 2024.

Mr. Trump labelled Wednesday’s measures “reciprocal” but many experts say his administration’s estimates for levies placed on U.S. imports by other countries are wildly exaggerated.

“The U.S. claims to have suffered losses in international trade, using so-called ‘reciprocity’ as an excuse to raise tariffs on all trade partners,” Beijing said.

“This approach disregards the balance of interests achieved through years of multilateral trade negotiations and ignores the fact that the US has long profited significantly from international trade,” it added.

It instead called for “dialogue” to resolve the dispute.

“There is no winner in a trade war, and there is no way out for protectionism,” it said, adding that “history has proven that raising tariffs does not solve the U.S.’s own problems”.

The U.S. has also imposed tariffs of 25% on steel and aluminium imports.

China is the world’s leading steel manufacturer, though not a major exporter of the product to the United States.