Donald Trump had forgotten 20 percent of the tariffs against China

In the trade conflict between the United States and China, the signs do not refer to relaxation-on the contrary: the US tariffs against China, which were brought on the way by President Donald Trump, are now even 145 percent-and not 125 percent, as the White House had previously announced.

This was confirmed by an employee of the US government center in Washington. In the case of the previous information, already introduced tariffs of 20 percent were not included, which Trump had raised for China’s role in the manufacture of the drug Fentanyl in recent months.

Other parts of the world trade are expected to get a breath of 90 days: Both the United States and the EU do not put some special tariffs into force for the time being. In a brief statement, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that it was only countermeasures decided the day before for almost three months.

Previously, after great turbulence on the stock and financial markets, US President Donald Trump surprisingly decided to grant a break from certain tariffs for 90 days. It is about punitive levies that are based on the trade deficit of the respective countries – except for China.

The US stock markets have significantly expanded their losses after the brilliant upswing from the previous day. Most recently, the Dow Jones Industrial lost 3.3 percent, the market width S&P 500 gave up 4.1 percent, while the tech -heavy Nasdaq 100 fell 4.8 percent to 18,220 points. The German leading index DAX had previously closed. In the case of US state bonds, the turbulence remain great despite the customs transition.

Trump has been a tough trading policy course for China since taking office. On Wednesday, he announced on the Truth Social Online platform to further increase the tariffs to imports from China to a total of 125 percent, while at the same time suspending certain tariffs for other countries. Trump justified the step by making China towards the world markets towards “lack of respect”. The White House initially only sparse information about the step.

It was only when the US government center published the formal, written order for the customs increase that the gap was noticeable when calculating the China tariffs. Because the arrangement shows that Trump, at 125 percent, only referred to the special levies that he had imposed as part of his so-called mutual tariffs since the beginning of April. These are special levies in response to commercial barriers in other countries for imports from the USA.

In the months before, however, the Trump government had already imposed tariffs against China with a different reasoning – because of the role of the country in the production of the drug Fentanyl, which is smuggled into the USA on a large scale. With this reason, Trump announced tariffs of 10 percent on imports from China at the beginning of February. In a second step, they were then doubled to 20 percent. And this 20 percent continue – must therefore be added to the 125 percent.

This means a further tightening of the trade conflict between the two largest economies in the world. In response to the US customs announcements of the past few days, Beijing had made it clear that it was ready to “fight until the end”. China accuses the USA “extortion”.

On Thursday, the announced Chinese retaliation duties officially came into force on US imports. For imports from the USA to China, special levies of 84 percent are now using. However, Beijing announced this step before Trump’s latest escalation.

So far, no response from China has yet to increase the increase in US tariffs to 125 percent – not even to the new calculation with total tariffs in the amount of 145 percent.

EU Commission President of the Leyen announced: “We have noted President Trump’s announcement. We want to give negotiations a chance.” The EU counter-measures were emphatically supported by the Member States, but are to be suspended for 90 days. Actually, the first measures should have been used next week.

The Leyen emphasized: “If the negotiations are not satisfactory, our countermeasures will come into force.” In addition, preparatory work for further countermeasures. All options were on the table.

The EU countries had actually cleared their way for the first counter-tariffs between 10 and 25 percent on Wednesday in response to the tariffs arranged by Trump. From mid -April, special levies for jeans and motorcycles from the USA should work.

Further counter -tariffs should be raised in mid -May and the end of the year – which would have affected food such as beef, poultry and citrus fruits such as oranges and grapefruits.

These EU measures are a reaction to US tariffs that have already come into force on steel and aluminum, which- according to everything is known- remain. According to its own statements, the EU has taken back it because it hopes for a 90-day negotiation window. Special levies on cars – regardless of which country they come from – are also in force.