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Investing.com - China's government has announced that it is putting an additional 50% tariff on imports from the United States, matching a further levy imposed by President Donald Trump in response to an earlier retaliatory action by Beijing.
The move would increase China's reciprocal tariffs on U.S. items to 84% from 34% previously, as a trade war intensifies between the world's two largest economies. The actions are due to take effect from April 10.
A slate of Trump’s tariffs, including levies on China raising the Trump administration's tariffs on the country to 104%, kicked in on Wednesday. The U.S. and China have now unveiled two rounds of heavy tariff increases on one another over the past week.
China's commerce ministry also said it would place exports controls on 12 more U.S. companies, and put a further six American firms -- including American Photonics and Novotech -- on to its list of "unreliable entities" which are mostly prohibited from doing business with China or Chinese companies.
U.S. stock futures tumbled sharply after the announcement.
When asked on the Fox Business channel about China's latest tariffs, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said it was "unfortunate that the Chinese don't want to come and negotiate, because they are the worst offenders in the international trading system."
Trump has claimed that "a lot of countries" are keen on making deals, noting that he anticipated China would also look to forge an agreement. Trump officials are due to speak with traditionally close U.S. trading partners South Korea and Japan, while Bessent is set to meet with Vietnam's deputy prime minister on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, China said in a statement to the World Trade Organization that the situation with the U.S. has "dangerously escalated," adding that it has "grave concern" and is in "firm opposition" to Washington's trade moves. China warned the WTO that the levies could destabilize global trade.
"Reciprocal tariff is not - and will never be - a cure for trade imbalances. Instead, they will backfire, harming the U.S. itself," according to China's statement to the WTO quoted by Reuters.
(Reuters contributed reporting.)