WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned Tuesday that China was making a “big mistake” with retaliatory tariffs on US goods — as Beijing vowed to “fight till the end” despite President Trump threatening to jack up tariffs as high as 104% on Chinese goods.
“I think it was a big mistake, this Chinese escalation,” Bessent told CNBC. “We are the deficit country. So what do we lose by the Chinese raising tariffs on us? We export one-fifth to them of what they export to us. So, that is a losing hand for them.”
Trump announced April 2 that China would face a new 34% “reciprocal” tariff premised in part on the trade deficit — on top of an existing average duty of 42.1%.
That baseline was driven largely by Trump’s 20% tariff on China over exports of fentanyl precursors and is a massive jump from the tariff levels of about 20.8% when Trump took office Jan. 20, .
The Chinese government in turn announced a 34% tariff on American goods — due to take effect Thursday, one day after Trump’s looming new levy.
The president said Monday that “if China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th.”
But the Chinese embassy in DC said it wouldn’t back down.
“The U.S. tariff escalation threat against China compounds its mistake and further exposes its nature of blackmail, which China will never accept,” the embassy posted Tuesday on X.
“China will fight till the end if the U.S. side is bent on going down the wrong path.”
While other major countries and trading blocs rushed to appease Trump by pledging action to remove trade barriers and tariffs and to eliminate current US trade deficits, Beijing’s statement instead said it wanted “the United States to immediately correct its wrongdoings.”
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