China Raises Tariffs On US Goods To 125% As Trade War Worsens

China on Friday said it would raise tariffs on US goods to 125 per cent from 84 per cent, hours after President Xi Jinping urged the European Union to join hands with Beijing in resisting "unilateral bullying", referring to the massive tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump.

The new levy, which will come into effect on Saturday, was announced after Trump this week raised the tariffs for China to 145 per cent, further escalating the ongoing trade war between the world's top two economies.

The Chinese finance ministry said further action by the US will be ignored because "at the current tariff level, there is no possibility of market acceptance for US goods exported to China".

"The United States' imposition of round upon round of abnormally high tariffs on China has become a numbers game with no practical significance in economics," it said.

"If the US continues to play the tariff numbers game, China will ignore it," a spokesperson said.

Beijing also said the US "should bear full responsibility" for the global economic "turbulence" unleashed by President Trump's tariffs.

Washington's levies "(caused) the current world economy, global markets and multilateral trading systems to suffer serious shocks and severe turbulence", a spokesperson for Beijing's Commerce Ministry said.

Beijing also said that President Trump decided to freeze tariffs on other countries partly after "pressure from China".

The US President on Wednesday announced a 90-day pause on his sweeping tariffs on all countries, barring China. He said he was raising tariffs on Chinese imports, citing a "lack of respect" from Beijing.

A previous round of US tariffs had come into force on Wednesday, hiking up duties on Chinese imports to 104 per cent.

China then responded to the 104 per cent duties, saying it would raise its tariffs on US imports from 34 per cent to 84 per cent, effective from Thursday.

Xi Jinping On US-China Trade War, Trump Tariffs

Xi Jinping on Friday met his Spanish counterpart, Pedro Sanchez, in Beijing and stressed that there are "no winners" in tariff wars.

State-run news agency Xinhua said the Chinese President also warned the European Union it needed to cooperate with China so the two can ride out the mounting trade war with Washington.

"China and Europe should fulfil their international responsibilities... and jointly resist unilateral bullying practices," he said, asserting this would not only "safeguard legitimate rights and interests... but also safeguard international fairness and justice."

The escalation in the US-China trade war comes days after President Trump called his Chinese counterpart a "smart man".

"I think President Xi is a man who knows exactly what needs to be done. He's a very smart man. He loves his country. I know that for a fact. I know him very well," he told reporters at the White House this week.

"And I think he's going to want to make a deal. I think that's going to happen. We'll get a phone call at some point, and everything will be ready," he added.

"It is going to be a great thing for us, the world and for humanity," Trump said.

(With agency inputs)