Market Data 
China hit back at the US with a 125% tariff on imports on Friday, the latest escalation in the trade war between the two superpowers sparked by President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
“The US’s imposition of abnormally high tariffs on China seriously violates international economic and trade rules, basic economic laws and common sense, and is completely a unilateral bullying and coercion,” China’s finance ministry said in a statement Friday.
The new tariffs will come into effect on Saturday, the foreign ministry’s statement said.
Previously, China had said the tariff rate on US imports would be 84%, a level imposed on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Trump’s White House clarified that the combined tariff rate being imposed on China was 145%, not the 125% that had previously been reported.
Earlier in the week, Trump had announced that he would pause a large swathe of his tariffs for 90 days, though he left many — including tariffs on China — in effect.
“At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable,” Trump wrote in a Wednesday Truth Social post.
China’s announcement of fresh retaliatory tariffs pushed European stocks lower. Major indexes on the continent had climbed in early trading on Friday but dropped on the announcement.
Britain’s benchmark FTSE 100 was virtually flat on the day as of 9:30 a.m. local time (4:30 a.m. ET), having been up by close to 1% earlier.
US futures were trading a little lower, with the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all set to open around 0.7% down.
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