China hits back with fresh 125% tariff on US imports
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- China hit the US with a 125% tariff on imports on Friday.
- The move is the latest in a series of tit-for-tat tariff increases.
- China's finance ministry accused the US of "bullying and coercion."
China hit back at the US with a 125% tariff on imports on Friday, the latest escalation in the trade war between the two superpowers sparked by President Donald Trump's trade tariffs.
"The US's imposition of abnormally high tariffs on China seriously violates international economic and trade rules, basic economic laws and common sense, and is completely a unilateral bullying and coercion," China's finance ministry said in a statement on Friday.
The new tariffs will come into effect on Saturday, the ministry said.
Previously, China had said the tariff rate on US imports would be 84%, a level imposed on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Trump's White House clarified that the combined tariff rate being imposed on China was 145%, not the 125% that had previously been reported.
Earlier in the week, Trump announced that he would pause a large swathe of his tariffs for 90 days, though many — including tariffs on China — remained in effect.
"At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable," Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday.
China's announcement of fresh retaliatory tariffs pushed European stocks lower on Friday after earlier gains.
Britain's benchmark FTSE 100 was down 0.6% at 9:45 a.m. local time (4:45 a.m. ET), having been up by close to 1% earlier. Europe's broad Stoxx 600 fell 0.9%.
US futures were trading a little lower, with the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all set to open about 0.7% lowe.
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