The Trump administration is set to impose tariffs totalling 104% on Chinese imports by midnight on April 9. On Monday, April 7, Trump had threatened to raise tariffs against China by 50% unless China lifted its own 34% tariffs on US imports, which Beijing refused to do.
In a social media post, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian called Trump’s latest round of tariffs, dubbed “reciprocal tariffs” by the US administration, “a typical case of unilateralism, protectionism and economic bullying.”
“The resolute measures taken by China are not only to safeguard its own sovereignty, security and development interests but also to defend international trade rules and international fairness and justice,” Jian stated.
There is broad worry that such extreme tariffs on Chinese goods could raise prices on everyday items and technology, including iPhones. Trump’s administration claims that goods such as iPhones could “absolutely” be produced in the US instead of China, as said by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. “[Trump] believes we have the labor, we have the workforce, we have the resources to do it,” Leavitt told reporters on April 8.
However, analysts warn that the reality of moving production from China to the US is far more complicated than the Trump administration is letting on. According to analyst Dan Ivers, “US consumers are about to see this Category 5 tariff storm hit the shores of the US.” The process of building factories in the US alone could take four to five years. Trump’s whopping 104% tariffs against Chinese imports could “essentially take the US tech industry back a decade in the process while China steamrolls ahead.”
However, socialist analysts in the US have broadly opposed both Trump’s protectionist policies as well as the so-called “free trade” of previous US administrations. “The ‘free trade’ policies that used to be dominant meant that there were less and less restrictions on corporations’ ability to operate wherever and however they want,” wrote the Party for Socialism and Liberation in a statement. “This helped greedy corporate executives destroy jobs by exploiting workers in other countries even more intensely.”
The PSL statement asserted that, “the basic problems facing working people won’t be solved until we have a totally new economic system that prioritizes meeting human need over profit. That’s the only way we can guarantee jobs, control prices and cooperate with the rest of the world at the same time.”
