Summary
China has shrugged off the latest U.S. tariff hike, dismissing the Trump administration’s threats as a “meaningless tariff numbers game.”
Donald Trump’s move to impose tariffs “wiped trillions of dollars off Wall Street” and raised duties on foreign goods, claiming to bring back U.S. manufacturing jobs.
A White House fact sheet announced tariffs on some Chinese imports would rise to 245%.
China’s Commerce Ministry said the move “fully exposes the fact that the United States has become irrational” and vowed to see the trade war “through to the very end.”
Generally any tariff over 50% eats into profit margins sufficiently to end trade altogether.
Any escalation in tariffs above that is essentially just a symbolic dick measuring contest. China is being the adult in this situation by not engaging.