The White House has clarified that Donald Trump’s tariffs on China are actually 145 percent, not the 125 percent previously thought.

Trump had whacked a series of escalating tariffs onto China to the point that they reached 125 percent, but CNBC has reported that a White House clarification said this figure was on top of a previous 20 percent of tariffs to make the measures even more punishing.

While Trump recently U-turned on his tariff decisions for most of the countries and knocked them down to the basic 10 percent rate he’d put everyone on, China was excluded from this.

Unpicking the ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs for most countries has gone ahead, and there will now be a 90-day pause in the financial chaos, but China retaliated to Trump’s tariffs with tariffs of their own and the tit-for-tat has escalated.

Initially, he imposed 34 percent tariffs, but these stacked with previous 20 percent tariffs that Trump had already imposed on China so the real total was 54 percent.

It was 34 percent (actually 54 percent) a week ago, now look where we are (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

China announced their own 34 percent retaliation, prompting the US to threaten another 50 percent and whack their punishment up to 104 percent.

The response from China was to escalate to 84 percent, with the US then responding by going to 125 percent and that’s where it was thought things were.

However, according to CNBC that figure didn’t factor in the initial 20 percent that Trump had announced much earlier for fentanyl-related reasons.

So now we’re in a place where the US is charging 145 percent tariffs on imports from China.

That extra 20 percent the White House wanted everyone to know they’d forgotten to add on comes from something earlier in Trump’s second term where he declared he was going to be ‘stopping poisonous fentanyl and other drugs from flowing into our country’.

That’s 145 percent more on imports from China, that’s going to be expensive (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

The US imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China, with the White House saying: “Chinese officials have failed to take the actions necessary to stem the flow of precursor chemicals to known criminal cartels and shut down money laundering by transnational criminal organizations.”

So, that’s where this 20 percent has come from. Another 34 percent is the ‘Liberation Day’ stuff, and the other 91 percent is because China fought back over this.

Gosh, this is hard to keep track of; by the time you’ve read this, there’s every chance it’ll have changed again.

What this means in practical terms is that anyone in the US importing something from China will have to pay the US government 145 percent the value of it (so more than the thing is worth) to get it there.

They’ll want to make up those costs elsewhere, so that’ll be passed onto the American consumer or they’ll look somewhere other than China to buy things.

Last yea,r China sold about $438.9 billion worth of goods to the US and is one of their top three main trading partners. In the current circumstances, Americans will be paying more than that to their own government just to buy things that were made in China.

Do you know how many things are made in China? It’s quite a lot, I can tell you.

Donald Trump has announced a 90-day pause on tariffs for most nations but has raised them yet again for China.

Taking to Truth Social, the US president said China’s tariff increase would be ‘effective immediately’.

This comes as a shock after Trump’s previous tariff rate of 104 percent on Chinese goods came into effect on Wednesday (9 April), the same day China hit back with tariffs of 84 percent on goods coming from the US.

The Chinese commerce ministry warned that the US’ ‘increase in tariffs will not solve its own problems’.

“Instead, it will trigger sharp fluctuations in financial markets, push up US inflation pressure, weaken the US industrial base and increase the risk of a US economic recession, which will ultimately only backfire on itself,” it said.

Amid China’s response, however, America has now increased its tariffs on Chinese imports to a whopping 125 percent.

“Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realise that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable.”

Trump said that because ’75 Countries have negotiated ‘a solution’ with the US, he has given them all a 90-day pause on tariffs.

Also, the US Treasury Secretary said that Trump will keep 10 percent baseline tariffs on most countries while escalating action against China.

Donald Trump has once again raised tariffs on Chinese imports (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

He added: “Conversely, and based on the fact that more than 75 Countries have called Representatives of the United States, including the Departments of Commerce, Treasury, and the USTR, to negotiate a solution to the subjects being discussed relative to Trade, Trade Barriers, Tariffs, Currency Manipulation, and Non Monetary Tariffs, and that these Countries have not, at my strong suggestion, retaliated in any way, shape, or form against the United States.

“I have authorised a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately.

“Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

He said the increase would be ‘effective immediately’ (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Amid the move by the US, China’s ministry of commerce has previously warned against increasing tariff rates.

“If the US insists on further escalating its economic and trade restrictions, China has the firm will and abundant means to take necessary countermeasures and fight to the end,” it added.

Earlier this week, President Trump said that the raise in tariffs was benefitting the US, calling China ‘the biggest abuser of them all’.

“Oil prices are down, interest rates are down (the slow moving Fed should cut rates!), food prices are down, there is NO INFLATION, and the long time abused USA is bringing in Billions of Dollars a week from the abusing countries on Tariffs that are already in place,” he wrote on X on Monday (7 April).

China has issued a defiant statement to US president Donald Trump as the ongoing trade war between the two nations heats up.

It would appear the both the Chinese and American governments have found themselves locked in an escalating battle to one-up each other in a trade battle which is playing out in front of the entire world.

As things currently stand, the US has slapped a charge of 145 percent on Chinese imports, while China responded earlier today by upping their tariffs on American goods to 125 percent.

The latest escalations have come at the same time as President Trump‘s decision to issue a 90-day pause on tariffs for all other nations, after global stock markets sank into the gutter.

And that’s where we’re at, for now.

The US-China trade war is heating up (Getty Stock Images)

Where this whole tit-for-tat saga will end is anybody’s guess but, judging by the latest statements coming from Chinese officials, it would seem the East Asian nation has no plans in bowing down to Trump’s demands.

An excerpt from a letter written for the South China Morning Post by Huang Jingrui, spokesperson for the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong referred to Trump as a ‘tariff-wielding barbarian’.

“We must solemnly tell the US: a tariff-wielding barbarian who attempts to force countries to call and beg for mercy can never expect that call from China,” he wrote.

“If the US is truly sincere about starting a dialogue with China on tariff issues, it should immediately correct its wrong practices and adopt the right attitude of equality, respect and mutual benefit.”

As China raises its US tariffs to 125%, the world waits to see what Donald Trump’s next move will be (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

His comments echo that of the Chinese Commerce Ministry, who gave the following statement on Friday: “The successive imposition of excessively high tariffs on China by the US has become nothing more than a numbers game, with no real economic significance.”

Meanwhile Chinese President Xi Jinping has broken his silence for the first time on the matter, stating there are ‘no winners’ in a trade war.

“There are no winners in a trade war, and going against the world will only lead to self-isolation,” he told Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Friday (via CNN).

Meanwhile Chinese President Xi Jinping has spoken out about the ongoing trade war (Ken Ishii – Pool/Getty Images)

According to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, President Xi added: “For over 70 years, China’s development has relied on self-reliance and hard work — never on handouts from others, and it is not afraid of any unjust suppression.

“Regardless of how the external environment changes, China will remain confident, stay focused, and concentrate on managing its own affairs well.”

According to the BBC, America imports around around $440 billion of goods from China, which accounts for 13 percent of US imports alone.

Additional tariffs on China from the US worth another 50 percent will kick in at midnight, the White House has confirmed.

That’ll take the total tariffs on China from the US to a whopping 104 percent in total.

When Donald Trump announced his tariffs on various countries last week the set about for China was 34 percent, but this was stacking with an existing 20 percent tariff that had already been imposed before to take the actual value to 54 percent.

In retaliation, China announced a 34 percent tariff on US goods of its own and it turns out the US really doesn’t like being on the receiving end of what it’s doing to pretty much every other country.

Trump threatened yesterday (7 April) to stick another 50 percent on China’s tariffs to spike their total to 104 percent, and today (8 April) it was announced that a deadline for a deal to be negotiated had passed.

Tariffs on China will go up to 104 percent (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

That means that at midnight the 104 percent total tariffs on Chinese goods going into the US will come into effect, meaning it looks like the two largest economies in the world are getting locked into a trade war.

China has described Trump’s measures as ‘blackmail’ and promised it would ‘fight to the end’

China’s commerce ministry said in a statement: “The US threat to escalate tariffs on China is a mistake on top of a mistake.

“China will never accept it. If the US insists on its own way, China will fight to the end.”

While some countries have responded to the tariffs by hunkering down and trying to calm down the situation or attempted to make a deal with the US to undo Trump’s work, China has instead adopted a different approach.

They decided to instead apply retaliatory tariffs pegged at the value that Trump had thrown their way, escalating the growing trade war.

Trump’s tariffs have had a punishing effect on stock markets around the world (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

According to Reuters, the US imported about $439 billion worth of goods from China last year, and exported about $143.5 billion worth of goods to the Chinese.

Only Mexico (over $500 billion) sold more to the US during 2024 than China, so this is going to hit Chinese exporters to the US and the American public very hard.

If the cost on all goods brought into the US from China is going to more than double thanks to the 104 percent tariff then that’s going to have a serious impact on the global economy.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “The Chinese want to make a deal. They just don’t know how to do it.

“[Trump] believes China has to make a deal with the United States.”

She added that if China did want to make a deal then Trump would be ‘incredibly gracious, but he’s going to do what’s best for the American people’.