Beijing: China strongly opposes the US tariffs and will take countermeasures to protect its rights and interests, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said on Thursday.
“China strongly opposes this and will take countermeasures to protect its rights and interests,” the ministry said in a statement.
The new US tariffs ignore the balance of interests achieved over many years of multilateral trade negotiations, the statement read, adding that the measures are based on subjective unilateral assessments, which “does not comply with the rules of international trade and seriously damages the legitimate rights and interests of the parties involved.”
“The Chinese side calls on the US to immediately lift unilateral tariff measures and properly resolve differences with trading partners through equal dialogue,” the statement said.
On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump announced the introduction of reciprocal tariffs on imports from other countries. The base rate will be 10%, but as Trump noted, the US will charge approximately half of the tariffs that other countries impose on American goods. Later, the White House said that the US will impose a 10% tariff on all foreign imports on April 5, while higher tariffs for countries with the largest trade deficits will take effect on April 9.
Later, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the new tariffs on Chinese imports are added to the previously existing measures and now reach 54%.
