China vows to fight back as many scramble to strike tariff deals with Trump

Updated April 8, 2025, 06:34 a.m. ET

TAIPEI, Taiwan – China said it “resolutely opposes” President Donald Trump’s threat of escalating tariffs even as many other Asian nations scrambled to strike deals with the U.S. following its blanket imposition of punishing new imposts on trade.

Trump said Wednesday he would impose an extra 50% tariff on Chinese goods if Beijing doesn’t drop the retaliatory 34% tariff it placed on U.S. products last week.

China and the U.S. are waging a tit-for-tat trade battle, which threatens to stunt the global economy, after Trump announced new tariffs on most countries last week, including a 34% tariff on Chinese goods. That was on top of an earlier 20% tariff on China in response to fentanyl trafficking.

“The US threat to escalate tariffs against China is a mistake on top of a mistake, which once again exposes the US’s blackmailing nature,” China’s Commerce Ministry said in a statement.

“China will never accept this. If the US insists on going its own way, China will fight it to the end,” the ministry said. “If the US escalates its tariff measures, China will resolutely take countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests.”

​Trump upended the global trade status quo last week, imposing a universal 10% tariff on all imports, effective April 5, and additional tariffs on dozens of countries deemed to have unfair trade practices, effective April 9.

In this announcement, Trump singled out China as one of the “nations that treat us badly.” America’s trade deficit – the amount that imports exceed exports – with China was US$295.4 billion last year, the largest of any country.

Trump’s tariffs sent shockwaves through world stock markets. Japan’s Nikkei 225 plunged nearly 8% on Monday, triggering a temporary trading halt, before rebounding 5.5% later in the day. The S&P 500 index is down nearly 10% over five days.

Analysts warned that export-driven Asian economies are likely to be among the hardest hit by the U.S. tariff hikes.

With the April 9 deadline approaching, some countries are urgently seeking trade agreements with the Trump administration in an effort to minimize the damage to their economies.

Japan ‘getting priority’

Japan is sending a team to Washington to negotiate on trade, according to Trump, who said that he spoke on Monday with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. Separately, Shigeru said he told Trump to rethink tariffs.

Trump has put Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in charge of trade negotiations with Japan, Bessent said on social media.

Bessent, in a Fox News interview, said that he had not yet seen any proposals from Tokyo, but that he expected to have successful negotiations to reduce Japan’s non-tariff trade barriers.

Japan is among 50 to 70 countries that have approached the Trump administration so far about negotiations, Bessent said.

“Japan is a very important military ally. They’re a very important economic ally, and the U.S. has a lot of history with them,” he said. “So I would expect that Japan is going to get priority just because they came forward very quickly.”

In South Korea, Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok and other policymakers reviewed their strategy ahead of the trade minister’s visit to the U.S. this week, according to the finance ministry.

During the visit from Tuesday to Wednesday, Cheong In-kyo, the South’s minister for trade, plans to meet with Greer and make a request to lower the 25% rate, the trade ministry said.

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te has said that Taiwan has no plans to retaliate with tariffs of its own against the U.S.

Taiwanese companies’ investment commitments to the U.S. would not change as long as they are in line with the democratic island’s national interests, Lai has said.

In Hong Kong, whose special trading privileges were removed by a Trump executive order in 2020, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said the city won’t impose countermeasures on the U.S., public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong reported.

“Hong Kong should remain free and open,” he said.

Vietnamese appeal

Meanwhile, Vietnam’s offer to lower its trade barriers to delay the implementation of U.S. tariffs has been rejected by a White House adviser.

Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son met with the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, Marc E. Knapper, on Sunday and reiterated his country’s willingness to lower the import tariff rate on U.S. products to zero in hope of postponing the onset of the new tariffs.

“Vietnam is ready to negotiate to bring the import tariff rate to 0% for US goods, increase procurement of US products that are strong and in demand by Vietnam, and at the same time create more favorable conditions for US enterprises to do business and invest in Vietnam,” said Son, cited by the government’s official information channel.

However, U.S. senior trade counselor Peter Navarro rejected this possibility later that day.

“This is not a negotiation, this is a national emergency based on a trade deficit that’s gotten out of control because of cheating,” Navarro told Fox News.

Even if both sides lowered tariffs to zero, the U.S. would still have a U$120 billion annual trade deficit with Vietnam, he said.

Vietnam consistently rebrands Chinese exports as its own products before shipping these to the U.S., Navarro said.

It also utilizes export subsidies, currency manipulation and “fake standards” which prevent U.S. manufacturers from making headway in Asian markets, he said.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet wrote a letter dated Friday seeking negotiations and for the U.S. to delay the 49% tariff to be imposed from April 9.

Hun Manet said that Cambodia would immediately reduce its top 35% tariff on American goods to 5% percent in 19 product categories, including American whiskey and beef.

In Thailand, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra announced on Sunday that Thailand will enter into talks with the U.S. following the imposition of tariffs on Thai goods.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira will travel to the U.S. for discussions with officials.

“Thailand has been a long-term, reliable economic partner and ally of the U.S., not merely an exporter,” Shinawatra said in a statement.

Sitthiphan Thanakiatpinyo, president of The Swine Raisers Association of Thailand, said Thai pork producers would not be able to compete if there were increased imports of U.S. pork.

The association, he told reporters, “strongly disagrees with the proposed imports of U.S. pork, which will destroy the Thai industry who can’t compete and would be compelled to give up their livelihoods.”

He said it would make more sense to reduce barriers to the import of animal feeds such maize, wheat and soy bean, which are relatively scarce in Thailand.

Leveraging regional platforms

Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at the Singapore-based ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, noted that smaller Southeast Asian economies – such as Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos – lack the leverage to negotiate from a position of strength.

“Their best options lie in coordinated regional responses – leveraging ASEAN platforms or aligning more closely with third-party markets,” he said, adding that U.S. pressure may accelerate intra-Asian economic integration, as vulnerable states seek shelter in regional trade frameworks or deepen ties with China.

“The U.S. risks pushing Southeast Asia further into the orbit of alternative trade and political partners,” he noted.

Signs of this shift are already emerging, with the Philippines offering a telling example.

Philippine’s Trade Secretary Ma. Cristina Roque told reporters on Monday that the Philippines was “definitely” open to the idea of slashing the levies on imported goods from the U.S, but added that the country would also work with other peers in the ASEAN in tackling the tariff debacle.

“We all work together as ASEAN,” she said, referring to the regional bloc, of which the Philippines is a founding member.

Edited by Stephen Wright.

Pimuk Rakkanam contributed to this report.

Updated with comments from Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute.