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PALM BEACH, Florida/BEIJING/WASHINGTON, April 4 (Reuters) – China announced additional tariffs of 34% on U.S. goods on Friday, striking back at U.S. President Donald Trump.
In the standoff between the world’s two biggest economies, Beijing also announced controls on exports of some rare earths, while Trump doubled down as well, vowing not to change course.
China added 11 U.S. bodies to the “unreliable entity” list, which allows Beijing to take punitive actions against foreign entities, including firms linked to arms sales to democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory.
Other impacted nations like Canada have also readied retaliation in a mounting trade war after Trump raised U.S. tariff barriers to the highest levels in more than a century, leading to a plunge in world financial markets.
Wall Street was down sharply early Friday afternoon in the wake of China’s response, a day after the Trump administration’s sweeping levies knocked off $2.4 trillion from U.S. equities. The Nasdaq dropped 4.6%, bringing the index down over 20% from its all-time closing high in December.
Trump’s team has played down the market turbulence as an adjustment that would prove beneficial in the long run. The White House touted stronger-than-expected job data on Friday, after a Labor Department report showed the U.S. economy added far more jobs in March than predicted.
“To the many investors coming into the United States and investing massive amounts of money, my policies will never change. This is a great time to get rich, richer than ever before!!!” Trump said in a social media post in all caps.
After Beijing’s retaliation, he posted: “China played it wrong, they panicked – the one thing they cannot afford to do!”
Trump said on Thursday he was open to talking to China and making a deal over TikTok by providing relief for U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods in exchange for Beijing’s approval of the sale of the ByteDance-owned short video app.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump said it was just an example and did not answer a question on whether plans were underway for him to talk to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
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