Washington- China responded to the White House raising the customs tariffs to its products by 104% by raising customs tariffs on its part to 84%, instead of 34% as scheduled, in a new escalation of the trade war between Beijing and Washington.
China had ignored the deadline for the cancellation of the customs reprisals that it imposed after the president’s imposition Donald Trump On Wednesday’s definitions of 34%, and accordingly, Washington decided to raise customs tariffs on imports from China to 104%, before Trump returned today and raised them to 125%that applies immediately.
The escalating move between the two largest economies in the world came to double the global concerns of a commercial war that harms various economies of the world.
Since last Thursday, global financial markets have witnessed widespread deterioration and sale, which resulted in many losses in the global financial markets, whose value exceeded trillion dollars due to President Trump’s move, which it seems still adhering to despite the increasing voices opposing them inside and outside the United States.
The White House set at midnight on Tuesday, April 8, a final timing, starting after, and with the first hours of Wednesday, April 9, the new fees entering into Chinese products.
- The total US trade with China is estimated at $ 582.4 billion in 2024.
- US exports to China amounted to 143.5 billion dollars.
- Total US imports from China reached 438.9 billion dollars.
- The US trade deficit with China amounted to $ 295.4 billion.
- China is the third largest commercial partner for the United States after Mexico and Canada.
China is surprised by Trump with its hardening
China surprised the Trump administration by challenging the decision to impose definitions on it, which similarly responded and decided on the same day imposing 34% on American products, before returning and raising them to 84% in response to American escalation steps.
Beijing also restricted the work of some American companies inside China at the same time, and prohibited the export of many rare minerals of the United States.
Trump aims to raise the retaliatory definitions of China to send a message to what other countries that follow the example can expect.
White House official spokeswoman Caroline Levitte said – yesterday – that due to the refusal of China to raise its reprisal definition, the 50% additional customs tariff imposed by the president in addition to the previously imposed customs definitions by 20% and 34% entered into force, raising the total customs tariffs on Chinese goods to 104%.
Levitte stated that the trading partners of the United States must come to the administration with deals and offers to improve the conditions of trade, and added, “The president’s message was simple and consistent from the beginning to all countries of the world, return to us with your best offers and we will discuss them, and deals will not be concluded unless they benefit American workers and address the suffocating trade deficit of our nation.”
It also stated, “Countries like China, which chose revenge, are trying to double the abuse of American workers, make a mistake.”
The banker Sharif Othman, the economist of “Poise Investment”, considered that Trump is treated in a humiliating manner with China, and that Trump still sees China as a developing country.
“The Trump grant China a 24 -hour period before it imposed more definitions on it, Beijing considered it a humiliating and unacceptable behavior. It was difficult for the Chinese leadership to retreat and undergo Trump’s conditions at this narrow time,” he said.
Trump’s narrow vision
The Trump administration focused on its customs tariff strategy on eliminating the trade deficit, as Washington calculated a formula for these definitions based on the size of the American trade deficit with various commercial partners.
Economists tend to reject the trade deficit as it is neither good nor bad, arguing that it is the result of commercial decisions of mutual benefit.
There are many reasons why some countries have trade surpluses, while others suffer from a deficit. There is no inherent reason for these numbers to be equal. Some countries are better than others in making different products, and they have different natural and human resources, and this is the basis of free global trade.
It also seems that Trump ignores the fact that his country has a surplus of $ 280 billion in financial services, technology and social media.
In a television interview, Ryan Young, chief economist at the Institute of Competitive Projects, said, “The commercial scales do not say anything about the economic health of the country, whether good or bad,” and indicated that the United States is suffering from a trade deficit for more than 50 years.
“The United States has been suffering from a trade deficit every year since the 1970s, however, living levels are better by almost all standards, whether in income, unemployment rate, average life expectancy, or the percentage of low -income families that have air conditioners, internet and other commodities,” Yong added.
Imposing the rules of a new game
On the other hand, in his conversation with Al -Jazeera Net, Sharif Othman pointed out that the escalation and mutual escalation between Washington and Beijing aims to try to impose new bases before they went to negotiate new trade arrangements.
Othman attributed the reason for Trump’s great anger at China to what he considers “a prejudice to American rights, as China supports its companies and avoids free competition with its Western counterparts, especially American, and China obliges American companies to transfer technology to them without appropriate compensation, at the same time China does not stop the practice of intellectual property.”
Financial expert Sharif Othman also pointed out that the Trump economic team is trying hard to obstruct the economic rise of China, which is a candidate force of the US hegemony over the global economic system, and Washington realizes that its unilateral dominance over the global economy is on its way to decline.
Expert Sherif Othman stated that China, for its part, “has adopted in its dealings with many neighboring countries on the Asian continent, and some Middle East countries in the digital meat, and this is in an effort to stay away from the US dollar’s control of global trade.
He said: “Indeed, China is away from the American Swift system in its financial dealings, and it reduces its dependence on investing in American bonds. Beijing is taking advantage of the splits caused by Trump with his traditional allies of his country, and worked to reformulate its trade relations with Japan and South Korea.”
