White House confirms additional 50% tariffs on China will take effect at midnight

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'.