Tom Howell, Jr. | April 11, 2025
(The Washington Times) — President Trump’s top trade official says China’s decision to increase tariffs on U.S. goods from 84% to 125% is “not terribly surprising but certainly unfortunate” as the administration pushes to negotiate with other nations while isolating Beijing.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer also said he is “obviously sensitive” to the potential for price increases on electronics, toys and other items, given Mr. Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods that range from 125% to 145%.
However, he said it is important for the U.S. to continue to diversify its supply chains away from China.
“If we can only maintain our standards of living by being dependent on China, who is a strategic adversary, that’s a very dangerous position to be in, so we need to accelerate this,” Mr. Greer told “Fox & Friends” on Friday.
The U.S. and China are locked in tit-for-tat tariff escalation after Beijing opted to retaliate against Mr. Trump’s “Liberation Day” system of high reciprocal tariffs on dozens of nations.
Mr. Trump agreed to a 90-day pause of reciprocal tariffs on other nations, citing their willingness to negotiate. He left in place a blanket 10% tariff on all imports and levies on steel and aluminum and autos.
Mr. Trump said he hit pause due to market turbulence, though his deputies also pointed to progress in getting other nations to reduce their trade barriers.
Mr. Greer said he is speaking to representatives from Israel and Taiwan on Friday.
“I have a full dance card,” he said.
Wall Street and financial pros are having a hard time digesting Mr. Trump’s sweeping moves to upend the global trade structure.
Stocks losses on Thursday ate into a massive rally on Wednesday that stemmed from Mr. Trump’s pause, and traders will be looking to end the week on a high note.
Larry Fink, the chairman and CEO of BlackRock, said in a quarterly earnings report Friday that “uncertainty and anxiety about the future of markets and the economy are dominating client conversations.”
“We’ve seen periods like this before when there were large, structural shifts in policy and markets — like the financial crisis, COVID, and surging inflation in 2022,” he said.
Mr. Trump said high tariffs could be reimposed on nations if they cannot strike a deal with the U.S. For now, the Washington-Beijing relationship is in the spotlight.
China’s finance ministry said it would fight “to the end” in the trade spat. However, officials also said the tariff levels are so high there is “no market acceptance” for U.S. goods in China, so Beijing would ignore future tariff increases.
“The U.S.’s repeated imposition of abnormally high tariffs on China has become a numbers game, which has no practical economic significance,” the ministry said. “It will only further expose the U.S.’s use of tariffs as an instrument and weapon to bully and coerce, and become a joke. If the U.S. continues to play the numbers game of tariffs, China will ignore it.”
