President Donald Trump will slap 104-percent tariffs on China at midnight Tuesday, April 8, after President Xi Jinping refused to withdraw retaliatory tariffs placed on the United States.
Last week, Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on countries that have historically imposed high tariffs on the U.S., including China, which faced a 34 percent tariff in addition to existing tariffs on its goods.
In response, China’s state-run Global Times called the reciprocal tariffs a tool to “blackmail” China and a “tool for extreme pressure and to pursue selfish interests.”
Likewise, Xi announced a 34-percent retaliatory tariff on the United States. Trump then announced that China will face an additional 50-percent tariff if the retaliatory tariffs are not withdrawn.
On Tuesday, reports indicated that Xi had no plans to withdraw the retaliatory tariffs and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the combined 104-percent tariffs on China would go into effect at midnight.
“Countries like China, who have chosen to retaliate and try to double down on their mistreatment of American workers, are making a mistake,” Leavitt said. “President Trump has a spine of steel, and he will not break.”
“[President Trump] expects that these tariffs are going to go into effect,” Leavitt said.
U.S. free trade with China, which started at the end of the 1990s when China was allowed to enter the World Trade Organization (WTO) and given Most Favored Nation (MFN) status by Congress, has devastated America’s working and middle class for nearly three decades.
A 2018 report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that the U.S. trade deficit with China, between 2001 and 2017, eliminated American jobs in all 50 states and in every single congressional district across the country — a loss of 3.4 million American jobs.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
