China ups ante: Raises tariffs, vows to fight to the end

The US President imposed a 20% tariff on goods from China in February, followed by an additional 34%. In retaliation, China imposed a total of 54% tariff on most American goods, which did not sit well with the US President. Donald Trump decided to raise the stakes by another 50%, making it 104% tariffs on nearly all products imported from China. Beijing responded again. In retaliation, it raised tariffs on American goods to 84%.

On Wednesday, April 9, Donald Trump surprised everyone once again. He paused new tariffs on almost all countries worldwide for three months but raised tariffs on China up to 125%. On Thursday, the White House had to explain the amount of tariffs Americans are currently collecting from China. It turned out that they totaled up to 145%.

The Trump administration explained that US tariffs on China include both the 125% rate, which covers the so-called reciprocal tariffs, and the 20% rate imposed by the US at the beginning of this year for alleged fentanyl smuggling.

Experts expected Beijing would not be intimidated by Donald Trump. It was clearly signalling this.

On Thursday, Chinese authorities stated that they "will never accept maximum pressure, bullying from U.S." They declared they would "fight to the end" in response to Washington's further decisions and "follow their own path" in global trade.

China's position is clear and consistent: the door to talks is open, but dialogue must be conducted on an equal basis with mutual respect - stated He Yongqian, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing on Thursday.

- China is also going all-out and, for now, will not consider the consequences. We have a total trade war. China is targeting measures that hurt Americans - commented this week on recent events around tariffs, Łukasz Kobierski from the New Europe Institute.