'Protectionism leads nowhere': China on US tariffs; vows countermeasures

China on Thursday said it would resolutely adopt countermeasures after President Donald Trump imposed 34 per cent tariffs on its over $438 billion imports to America, but put off any immediate retaliatory action leaving room for a negotiated deal.

Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on Chinese imports on Wednesday as part of sweeping measures aimed at reshaping American trade policy.

The Chinese Commerce Ministry hit out hard on Trump's tariffs on its exports to the US, third largest after ASEAN and EU, However, its spokesperson skirted questions about an immediate action by China. 

To questions about the prospect of future trade talks with the US following the latest tariff measures, the ministry said China and the US had been in communications on their trade concerns, and would resolve their concerns through equal dialogues, the Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported.

Separately, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said the US has imposed tariffs on China and many other countries under the pretext of reciprocity.

This gravely violates WTO rules, and undermines the rules-based multilateral trading system. China firmly rejects this and will do what is necessary to defend our legitimate rights and interests, he said.

We have emphasised more than once that trade and tariff wars have no winners. Protectionism leads nowhere. We urge the US to stop doing the wrong thing, and resolve trade differences with China and other countries through consultation with equality, respect and mutual benefit, he said.

The Commerce Ministry statement earlier said the US determined the so-called reciprocal tariffs based on subjective and unilateral evaluation, which does not comply with international trade rules, severely damages the legitimate rights and interests of relevant parties, and is a typical practice of unilateral bullying.

China urges the US to immediately cancel its unilateral tariff measures and properly resolve differences with its trading partners through equal dialogue, it said.

The tariffs brought the total levies on China to 54 per cent, close to the 60 per cent Trump threatened during his poll campaign.

Trump had earlier imposed two rounds of 10 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods, first in February and then in March this year.

He had said he would consider lowering tariffs on China if Beijing supported a deal for ByteDance to divest its short-video app TikTok to a US buyer.

China earlier retaliated against Trump's tariffs with an additional 15 per cent tariffs on American goods and initiated legal action against Washington in the WTO.

Additionally, China added 10 US firms to the country's unreliable entity list and took corresponding measures against them.

They include a number of companies linked to defence and security besides AI, aviation, IT and dual-use items that carry both civilian and military applications.

Though Chinese officials argue that the new tariffs would hurt the US consumers more, these tariffs are expected to lower substantial exports to the US hitting heavily its domestic industries, already reeling under the impact of the slowdown of the economy.

The US constitutes China's third biggest export destination after Asean and the European Union. The US total goods trade with China was an estimated $582.4 billion in 2024, according to the figures from the Office of the US Trade Representative.

US goods exports to China in 2024 were $143.5 while the US imports from China in 2024 totalled $438.9 billion. US goods trade deficit with China was $295.4 billion in 2024.

Trump said, We're going to be charging a discounted reciprocal tariff of 34 per cent.

China, he said, charged tariffs of 67 per cent to the US, noting that the figure included the effects of currency manipulation and trade barriers.

The new 34 per cent tariffs on Chinese imports reflect a 10 per cent universal baseline plus 24 per cent specific to the country. The 10 per cent will come into effect on April 5 while the higher reciprocal tariffs will take effect on April 9.

Trump had vowed for months to impose reciprocal tariffs to match other countries' higher tariff rates for specific goods and offset non-tariff barriers that put US exports at a disadvantage, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

The new levies, Trump said, would correct years of unfair trade during which other countries had been ripping off the US.

At the White House, Trump described his actions on China as tough love.

I have great respect for President Xi (Jinping) of China, great respect for China, but they were taking tremendous advantage, he said.