Washington (USA), April 9 (LaPresse/AP) – At the stroke of midnight in Washington, the new U.S. tariffs imposed by Donald Trump officially came into effect, including a combined 104% tariff on China.
When Trump announced the latest round of tariffs on April 2, he stated that the U.S. would tax nearly all of America's trading partners with a minimum 10% tariff, and impose higher percentages on countries with trade surpluses with the U.S.
The "base tariff" of 10% had already taken effect on Saturday. Higher import duties on dozens of other countries went into effect after midnight in Washington.
Some of the steepest tariffs reach up to 50%, mainly targeting smaller economies with limited trade volume with the U.S., such as the African kingdom of Lesotho. Other significant tariffs include 47% on imports from Madagascar, 46% from Vietnam, 32% from Taiwan, 25% from South Korea, 24% from Japan, and 20% from the European Union.
Some of these new tariffs are added on top of existing duties: in China’s case, the 34% tariffs announced last week are stacked on top of a 20% duty imposed earlier this year. Trump has also threatened to add another 50% tax on Chinese goods in response to Beijing’s recent retaliation threats — bringing the total combined tariff on China to 104%.