Trump’s tariffs on China are actually 145 per cent, White House clarifies

Washington: The White House has been forced to clarify President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods are actually at least 145 per cent – not 125 per cent – as sharemarkets resumed their plunge.

Meanwhile, Trump said countries he initially hit with a 10 per cent tariff, such as Australia and the United Kingdom, could negotiate the rate lower depending on their circumstances and what they offered the United States.

The president this week reversed course on his tariffs for dozens of countries and lowered them to the 10 per cent “baseline”. However, he also hiked import duties on Chinese goods to what he said was a total of 125 per cent, following Beijing’s retaliation for earlier levies.

However, the White House on Friday (AEST) confirmed the cumulative tariff on China was at least 145 per cent. While the “reciprocal” rate was 125 per cent, there was a further 20 per cent tariff Trump had already levied on China under an emergency measure aimed at punishing fentanyl trafficking.

Trump’s social media post announcing his latest move did not account for that. “I am hereby raising the tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125 per cent,” it said. There are also numerous other pre-existing tariffs on Chinese goods levied under separate laws.

The clarification hit volatile markets that had already erased many of the gains made the day before after Trump hit pause on much of his planned tariff program. US stocks dove on Thursday, local time, and surrendered a chunk of their historic gains from the day.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Trump brushed off news that as part of its retaliatory measures, Beijing would reduce the number of American films allowed to be shown in China. “I think I’ve heard of worse things,” he said to laughter from his secretaries.

Asked whether countries could negotiate below the so-called universal baseline tariff of 10 per cent – the level Australia received from the start – Trump indicated they could but “it depends on what they’re adding”.

“Some countries we have massive deficits with, or they have big surpluses with us, and others it’s not that way, so it depends,” he said.

“We have some that are pretty even, but they hurt us in other ways. So we just want to get that taken care of. Everyone is a little bit different.”

Donald Trump at a cabinet meeting on Thursday (Friday AEST).Credit: Bloomberg

The US has historically had a trade surplus with Australia, though in the past two months it has had a deficit, Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows.

Australia’s surplus of $1.1 billion in February was again driven by huge purchases of gold by American investors, which helped drive the price of the precious metal to all-time highs.

Earlier in the week, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the US should be “running up the score” on Australia, despite the long-running trade surplus the US enjoyed with the country, to help reduce its overall annual goods trade deficit of $US1.2 trillion ($1.93 trillion).

He was also critical of what he characterised as Australia’s refusal to accept US beef and pork. Australia says it would import beef products derived from cattle born, raised and slaughtered in the US, but has not approved meat from cows in Mexico and Canada, which are part of the US supply chain.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade did not answer whether Australia had formally contacted the administration to restart negotiations. The government is in caretaker mode for the federal election.

Trump’s allies continued to celebrate the president’s tariff strategy as a master stroke that had forced other countries to the negotiating table.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick posted on X: “The Golden Age is coming. We are committed to protecting our interests, engaging in global negotiations and exploding our economy.”

Asked about the day’s sharemarket pullback, Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said: “Up two, down one is not a bad ratio … We had very good inflation numbers today, oil’s down, we had a successful bond market, so I don’t see anything unusual today.”

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