President Donald Trump is threatening China with additional 50-percent tariffs in response to President Xi Jinping’s announcement that the communist country would impose retaliatory tariffs on the United States.
Last week, during a speech in the Rose Garden, Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on countries that have historically imposed high tariffs on the United States. Among those countries is China, which Trump slapped a 34-percent tariff on in addition to the tariffs that have been in place on China since Trump’s first term that former President Joe Biden did not end.
In response to the reciprocal tariffs, China announced retaliatory tariffs of 34 percent on U.S. goods. Now, Trump says that if the tariffs against the United States are not withdrawn, China will face an additional 50-percent tariff.
“Yesterday, China issued Retaliatory Tariffs of 34%, on top of their already record setting Tariffs, Non-Monetary Tariffs, Illegal Subsidization of companies, and massive long term Currency Manipulation, despite my warning that any country that Retaliates against the U.S. by issuing additional Tariffs, above and beyond their already existing long term Tariff abuse of our Nation, will be immediately met with new and substantially higher Tariffs, over and above those initially set,” Trump wrote on Truth Social:
Therefore, 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. Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated! Negotiations with other countries, which have also requested meetings, will begin taking place immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter! [Emphasis added]
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.
The vast majority of those jobs lost to China were in the manufacturing sector, making up 74.4 percent of all jobs lost and amounting to 2.5 million American manufacturing jobs lost. This total includes the 1.3 million American jobs lost since 2008.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
