China just took its harshest retaliation on the United States by increasing additional tariffs on products imported from the US to 125%, effective Saturday, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council announced Friday.

The announcement follows the US move to raise the “reciprocal tariffs” on Chinese imports to 125%. This, despite the order of US President Donald Trump to pause the imposition of reciprocal tariffs on its trading partners, including the Philippines.

The Chinese tariff commission said the US imposition of excessively high tariffs on China seriously violates international economic and trade rules, goes against basic economic laws and common sense, and is nothing but unilateral bullying and coercion.

Even if the US imposes even higher tariffs, it would no longer make economic sense and ultimately go down as a joke in world economic history, according to the commission.

“Given that it’s already impossible for the Chinese market to accept US imports at the current tariff level, if the United States imposes further tariffs on Chinese products, China will ignore it,” it said.

However, should the US persist in substantially undermining China’s interests, China will take firm countermeasures and fight to the end, the commission added.

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