China vows to fight "to the end" if President Trump continues tariff war

BEIJING / WASHINGTON, April 8: The US and China headed to a full - blown trade war on Tuesday with Beijing vowing to fight America's "blackmail" to the end and requite against Donald Trump's threat to impose an additional 50% tariff.

The total tariffs on goods imported into the United States from China would be 104% if Trump Executes the additional tariff.

China is ready to fight to the end if the United States is bent on waging a tariff war and trade war, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said responding to Trump's threat to impose an additional 50% tariff on Chinese imports.

Reacting to Trump's threat, China's commerce ministry on Tuesday said China will never accept the "blackmail nature" of the US and vowed the fight against tariffs "to the end".

"The US threat to escalate tariffs against China is a mistake on top of a mistake, which once again exposes the US' blackmailing nature, " a ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.

"If the US insists on going its own way, China will fight it to the end. If the US escalates its tariff measures, China will resolutely take counter measures to safeguard its own rights and interests."

Lin Said, "Let me stress once again that trade wars and tariffs have no winners and protectionism has no way out. The Chinese people never create trouble nor do we fear trouble", adding that he also said "Pressuring threatening and exhorting China is not the right way to engage with us".

On Monday Trump threatened the new 50% duty on China, effective Wednesday, if Beijing does not withdraw its 34% tariffs on all US goods by Tuesday, which China imposed in retaliation for a 34% levy on Chinese goods.

It appears the world's 2 largest economies are headed to a no - holds barred trade war as Trump earlier warned China that its exports to the US totalling USD 438.9 billion would face an additional 50% tariff unless it removed the retaliatory levies of 34% imposed on American goods in response similar tariffs slapped by him.

The US Trade deficit with China last year totalled USD 295.4 billion, according to official figures.

It would badly hurt China's exports to the US which is its third major trade destination after ASEAN and EU said by analysts if Beijing presses ahead.

Trump also warned by the Economists that the tariff could impact China's GDP by 2 to 2.5% points further affecting the Chinese economy which is struggling with a slowdown. Trump's threat to impose an additional 50% tariff would raise levies on Chinese exports to an unheard - of 104%.