George Magnus

How Trump’s tariffs will hurt China

China has been hit hard by President Trump’s tariff list, which he unveiled yesterday in the White House rose garden.

As part of his ‘Liberation Day’, Trump imposed new 34 per cent tariffs on China. This seems to be in addition to the 20 per cent tariffs levied on the country by the US since January. And in addition to 11 per cent tariffs previously applied after Beijing was accused of violating international trade and harming US commerce.

That means the average tariff on imported goods from China possibly stands at 65 per cent.

Next month, things will get even worse for China when the ‘de minimis’ exemption will be phased out. This allowed packages with a value of $800 or less to be shipped to the US from China duty free, and was frequently used by companies like Shein and Temu.

The impact on China, which ran a $1 trillion trade surplus with the US in 2024, equivalent to over 5.5

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