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Trump tariffs together with 104% in opposition to China come into power
Donald Trump’s new tariffs on dozens of nations have come into impact, together with 104% duties on Chinese language items, deepening his international commerce conflict.
The spherical of so-called “reciprocal” tariffs on imports to the US – imposed from 12.01am Japanese Time (0401 GMT) – come because the US president’s punishing levies have shaken a world buying and selling order that has persevered for many years, raised fears of recession and pushed worldwide shares sharply downward.
The S&P closed beneath 5,000 for the primary time in almost a yr on Tuesday and is nearing a bear market, outlined as 20% beneath its most up-to-date excessive, Reuters reviews. S&P 500 corporations have misplaced $5.8tn in inventory market worth since Trump unveiled the tariffs final Wednesday.
A sell-off throughout Asian markets resumed on Wednesday after a quick respite, with Japan’s Nikkei down over 3% and South Korea’s received foreign money sliding to a 16-year low. US inventory futures additionally pointed to a fifth straight day of losses on Wall Road.
Trump almost doubled duties on Chinese language imports, which had been set at 54% final week, in response to counter-tariffs that Beijing introduced final week. China has vowed to “combat to the top” over what it views as blackmail.
Trump has supplied buyers blended indicators about whether or not the tariffs will stay in the long run, describing them as “everlasting” but additionally boasting that they’re pressuring different leaders to ask for negotiations.
“We now have a whole lot of nations coming in that need to make offers,” he mentioned at a White Home occasion on Tuesday afternoon. He mentioned at a later occasion that he anticipated China to pursue an settlement as properly.
Key occasions
Germany is prone to one other recession on account of commerce tensions sparked by the Trump tariffs, the finance minister mentioned.
“A doable commerce battle will increase the chance of recession, there is no such thing as a query about that,” Joerg Kuki informed the broadcaster Deutschlandfunk on Wednesday.
Already smarting from two consecutive years of recession, a 3rd contraction in 2025 would mark a traditionally lengthy down-run for Europe’s largest economic system.
Reuters quoted sources as saying German financial institutes are to revise down their forecast for 2025 to only 0.1% development, underneath projections that don’t issue within the newest Trump tariffs.

Amy Hawkins
The opening photographs look like a distant reminiscence. Again in January, US president Donald Trump threatened to impose a tariff of 10% on Chinese language imports. Lower than three months later, the speed is now 104%.
China has condemned the tariffs. In addition to making use of its personal reciprocal tariff of 34% on US imports, Beijing has been combating a confrontation.
“When challenged, we’ll by no means again down,” China’s international ministry mentioned. The commerce ministry mentioned: “China will combat to the top if the US facet is bent on happening the mistaken path.” Additional countermeasures have been promised by Beijing.
The tit-for-tat measures might spark fears of a race to the underside, with odd folks struggling as costs rise and a fears of a world recession develop. However though China’s economic system has in recent times been beset by its personal challenges, on the subject of tariffs particularly, Beijing is unlikely to blink first.
For the complete evaluation on the high-stakes recreation of brinkmanship between China and the US, see right here:
Asean chief urges ‘boldly’ integrating area’s economies
Asean should “act boldly” to speed up regional financial integration as sweeping US tariffs depart a lot of the world caught in the midst of a devastating commerce conflict, the bloc’s chief mentioned on Wednesday.
The ten-member Affiliation of Southeast Asian Nations, which rely on the US as their major export market, had been amongst these hit with Donald Trump’s steepest levies.
“To stay related and resilient in a world the place financial chaos is quick changing into the brand new regular, we should act boldly, decisively, and collectively to reaffirm Asean’s dedication to a steady, predictable and business-friendly surroundings,” Asean’s secretary basic, Kao Kim Hourn, informed an funding convention.
Agence France-Presse reviews he was talking on the eve of a gathering of Asean financial and finance ministers in addition to central financial institution governors within the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur to debate how to answer the US tariffs.
Asean governments have chosen to not the retaliate in opposition to Washington, preferring dialogue. However their export-oriented economies danger being harm by a world commerce conflict after China – one other key market – imposed its personal tariffs on the US.
Kao mentioned:
With out pressing and collective motion to speed up intra-Asean financial integration and diversify our markets and partnerships, we danger ceding our place in a fractured and fast-evolving international economic system.
India central financial institution cuts charges
India’s central financial institution has lower rates of interest, citing “difficult” international situations, AFP is reporting.

Amy Hawkins
Chinese language social media is abuzz with the newest tariffs, as Donald Trump’s 104% duties on Chinese language items kicked in on Wednesday.
One of many prime trending hashtags on Weibo was “The US begs for eggs whereas combating the commerce conflict”, whereas one other was “Commerce boundaries can’t cease financial globalisation”.
Weibo customers mocked the US for affected by an egg scarcity, with some accounts sharing footage of empty egg cabinets in US supermarkets.
“When you can’t even deal with an egg, why are you combating a commerce conflict,” one person wrote.
Influential Chinese language bloggers have recommended that China might prohibit the import of American poultry and eggs as a countermeasure within the commerce conflict, which might be an additional blow to US farmers.
Weibo customers additionally mentioned the prospect of iPhones rocketing in worth because of the tariffs, with a number of folks saying that they might swap to utilizing telephones made by Chinese language corporations Huawei or Xiaomi.
Nikkei and Taiwan shares plummet as yen lifts after new tariffs
Japan’s Nikkei benchmark index has dived 5% whereas the yen rallied 1% as buyers search refuge as the brand new US tariff regime bites.
Shares in Taiwan, in the meantime, fell 5.8% in afternoon buying and selling, AFP is reporting.
Indian pharmaceutical shares fell 1.7% on Wednesday after Donald Trump reiterated plans to announce a “main” tariff on all pharmaceutical imports.
The US accounts for a 3rd of India’s total pharma exports.
Trump additionally threatened the duties on Friday, after his first set of reciprocal tariffs earlier final week exempted pharma merchandise – a change in stance that had prompted a wild swing in pharma shares, Reuters reviews.
On the day, all 20 constituents of the pharma index had been decrease, with the index dragging down the benchmark Nifty 50 by about 0.52% as of 9.20am IST.
Gland Pharma, Lupin and Zydus Lifesciences had been the highest losers by proportion, down between 3% and 5%. Solar Pharma and Cipla, the highest constituents by weight, fell 1.69% and 1.87%, respectively.
India’s pharma exports to the US principally comprise generics, or cheaper variations of well-liked medicine. These presently appeal to nearly no US levies, whereas India imposes about 10% tax on US pharma imports, in keeping with business specialists.
The US and and China are heading in direction of an all-out commerce conflict whereas locked in a high-stakes recreation of brinkmanship as Donald Trump unleashed his new wave of tariffs right now.
For extra on that and all the important thing developments as the worldwide economic system is rocked once more, see our full wrap right here:
The brand new US tariffs in opposition to dozens of its buying and selling companions embody charges of 104% on China, 20% on the European Union, 26% on India and 49% on Cambodia.
They’re tailor-made to particular nations primarily based on a system that has been criticised by economists that divides commerce in items deficit by twice the full worth of imports.
“President Trump has a backbone of metal and he is not going to break,” the White Home press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, mentioned on Tuesday. “And America is not going to break underneath his management.”
Because the report by Helen Davidson and businesses says, the US president believes his coverage will revive America’s misplaced manufacturing base by forcing corporations to relocate to the US. However many enterprise specialists and economists query how rapidly – if ever – this could happen, warning of upper inflation because the tariffs increase costs amid intensifying fears of a recession.
Most nations have up to now declined to impose reciprocal tariffs – China being the primary exception – however right now might see some retaliation from the European Union.
EU member states will vote right now on an inventory of US items to be subjected to retaliatory tariffs. The checklist of potential targets going through primarily a 25% levy ranges from almonds to yachts, by way of diamonds and dental floss, soya beans and metal components. However bourbon and wine have been spared.
The complete story is right here:
Trump tariffs together with 104% in opposition to China come into power
Donald Trump’s new tariffs on dozens of nations have come into impact, together with 104% duties on Chinese language items, deepening his international commerce conflict.
The spherical of so-called “reciprocal” tariffs on imports to the US – imposed from 12.01am Japanese Time (0401 GMT) – come because the US president’s punishing levies have shaken a world buying and selling order that has persevered for many years, raised fears of recession and pushed worldwide shares sharply downward.
The S&P closed beneath 5,000 for the primary time in almost a yr on Tuesday and is nearing a bear market, outlined as 20% beneath its most up-to-date excessive, Reuters reviews. S&P 500 corporations have misplaced $5.8tn in inventory market worth since Trump unveiled the tariffs final Wednesday.
A sell-off throughout Asian markets resumed on Wednesday after a quick respite, with Japan’s Nikkei down over 3% and South Korea’s received foreign money sliding to a 16-year low. US inventory futures additionally pointed to a fifth straight day of losses on Wall Road.
Trump almost doubled duties on Chinese language imports, which had been set at 54% final week, in response to counter-tariffs that Beijing introduced final week. China has vowed to “combat to the top” over what it views as blackmail.
Trump has supplied buyers blended indicators about whether or not the tariffs will stay in the long run, describing them as “everlasting” but additionally boasting that they’re pressuring different leaders to ask for negotiations.
“We now have a whole lot of nations coming in that need to make offers,” he mentioned at a White Home occasion on Tuesday afternoon. He mentioned at a later occasion that he anticipated China to pursue an settlement as properly.
Base metallic costs in China fell on Wednesday, with copper hitting an eight-month low, because the looming 104% US import tariff on Chinese language items heightened issues about slowing development.
Essentially the most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai futures change dropped 2.0% to 71,950 yuan ($9,789) per metric ton as of 0333 GMT, hovering close to its lowest degree since 12 August final yr.
The benchmark three-month copper on the London metallic change was down 1% to $8,570 per metric ton, Reuters reviews.
China’s yuan slides to 19-month low
The yuan dipped additional in opposition to the US greenback to a contemporary 19-month low on Wednesday after the Chinese language foreign money slid to a file low in offshore markets in a single day.
The yuan weakened to a low of seven.3505 per greenback within the morning buying and selling session, the bottom since September 2023, as buyers fretted concerning the intensifying China-US commerce tensions.
The offshore yuan pared losses and climbed about 0.62% to 7.3812 yuan per greenback in Asian commerce, after sinking greater than 1% within the earlier session and hitting its weakest degree on file at 7.4288 per greenback in a single day, Reuters reviews.
Japan’s finance minister has mentioned commerce negotiations with the US might embody discussions on international change charges.
“There was numerous communication, together with on change charges, from the US facet, so foreign money strikes could possibly be amongst themes up for dialogue,” Katsunobu Kato informed parliament on Wednesday. “However specifics have but to be set.”
Kato additionally mentioned any discussions on change charges could be held between the finance chiefs of the 2 nations, Reuters reviews.
Whereas not confirmed, Kato is predicted to go to Washington later this month when G20 finance leaders collect on the sidelines of the Worldwide Financial Fund spring conferences. The go to opens up the prospect for Kato to carry his first face-to-face assembly with US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent.
Given President Donald Trump’s deal with addressing the massive US commerce deficit, some analysts say Japan could face stress from Washington to assist reverse the yen’s downtrend, which supplies its exports a aggressive benefit.
Billions wiped off Australian shares

Jonathan Barrett
In Australia, shares swung wildly early on Wednesday, wiping tens of billions of {dollars} of worth from the market over issues the world’s two largest economies are headed for a full-blown commerce conflict.
The S&P/ASX 200 opened barely decrease, earlier than plunging greater than 2% a couple of minutes into the session, erasing the rebound of the day prior to this. By noon, the benchmark had recovered to the 7,435 level mark, representing a 1% fall for the session.
Mining corporations had been early casualties of the drop, with BHP shares falling greater than 4% in early buying and selling. Australia’s largest biotech firm, CSL, was additionally down greater than 4% after Donald Trump introduced {that a} “main” pharmaceutical tariff was coming quickly.
Assets corporations, particularly these concerned in iron ore extraction, are significantly delicate to any slowdown in international financial development and a commerce conflict between the US and China.
The complete story is right here:
The New Zealand Reserve Financial institution lower rates of interest on Wednesday citing US commerce tariffs, one of many first central banks to answer the financial turmoil sweeping markets worldwide.
“Latest will increase in tariffs and uncertainty about international commerce coverage have weakened the outlook for international financial exercise,” the central financial institution mentioned, asserting it could decrease the nation’s key rate of interest.
It’s one hour till Donald Trump’s slew of recent tariffs on the US’s largest buying and selling companions are resulting from come into impact, regardless of fears of widespread international financial harm and calls to rethink.
The US will even go forward with imposing a 104% tariff on China from 12.01am ET (12.01pm China Commonplace Time) on Wednesday, the White Home confirmed after Beijing didn’t elevate its retaliatory tariffs on US items by Trump’s Tuesday midday deadline.
The so-called reciprocal tariffs are additionally resulting from hit about 60 different nations.
The newest tariffs are greater than the ten% flat charge imposed on all international imports to the US final week and are tailor-made to particular nations primarily based on a system that has been criticised by economists.