The United States goes up a gear in its commercial showdown with China. The White House formalized Thursday the entry into force of new additional customs duties on Chinese products, bringing their cumulative level to an impressive 145%.
This decision is part of President Donald Trump’s new offensive strategy, who made the trade war a central lever of his economic and security policy.
According to a decree published Thursday, the new customs duties of 125% are added to the taxes already in force. Since last March, a first 20% sample had been established, officially to combat fentanyl traffic, an ultra-powerful opioid responsible for a major health crisis in the United States.
These new levies mainly aim at Chinese products suspected of facilitating the illegal trade in this synthetic drug. They are also added to the price barriers already set up under the previous mandate of Donald Trump, long before his return to the White House.
Aware of the economic repercussions of this protectionist policy, Donald Trump himself acknowledged that this customs escalation would have a short-term price.
“The transition will have a cost and will pose problems, but in the long term, it will be a good thing for our country,” said the American president on Thursday at a meeting of his office in the White House.
This announcement immediately caused strong turbulence to Wall Street, investors fearing the consequences of this price increase for American companies and consumers.
