Chinese officials are threatening to retaliate after President Donald Trump imposed sweeping sanctions across virtually all U.S. trading partners on Wednesday.
Trump unveiled his reciprocal tariff plan at a Wednesday event, smacking China with a 34% tariff on imports to the U.S. in addition to the blanket 10% tariff the Trump administration applied on all countries.
“The U.S., under the guise of ‘reciprocity,’ has imposed tariffs on products from multiple countries, including China, which seriously violates WTO rules and undermines the rules-based multilateral trading system,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a briefing in Beijing.
Jiakun added that “there are no winners in trade wars and tariff wars, and protectionism is not a way out … It is clear to everyone that more and more countries are opposing the U.S.’s unilateral bullying actions, such as imposing tariffs.”
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Beijing has also promised “countermeasures” following the tariffs, though officials have not shared specifics.
FRANCE ASKS US TO BE ‘COOPERATIVE’ INSTEAD OF ‘CONFRONTATIONAL’ FOLLOWING TRUMP’S ‘LIBERATION DAY’ TARIFFS
Trump touted his sweeping tariff plan at a “Make America Wealthy Again” event on Wednesday, arguing that it will restore the American dream and bolster jobs for U.S. workers.
“American steel workers, auto workers, farmers and skilled craftsmen,” Trump said from the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday afternoon. “We have a lot of them here with us today. They really suffered, gravely. They watched in anguish as foreign leaders have stolen our jobs, foreign cheaters have ransacked our factories, and foreign scavengers have torn apart our once-beautiful American dream. We had an American dream that you don’t hear so much about. You did four years ago, and you are now. But you don’t too often.”
“Now it’s our turn to prosper, and in so doing, use trillions and trillions of dollars to reduce our taxes and pay down our national debt,” he continued. “And it will all happen very quickly. With today’s action, we are finally going to be able to make America great again, greater than ever before. Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country, and you see it happening already. We will supercharge our domestic industrial base.”
Trump was joined by members of his Cabinet for the highly anticipated announcement, which marked the first official presidential event held in the Rose Garden since Trump’s January inauguration.
The trade announcements have sparked uncertainty about the cost of goods to Americans, which White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt brushed aside Tuesday during a press briefing, arguing the tariff plan “is going to work.”
Fox News’ Emma Colton and Rachel Wolf contributed to this report.
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