At a ceremony last Wednesday in the White House Rose Garden, the president raised a flat, 10% tariff on every U.S.-trading partner in addition to “reciprocal” rates targeting individual countries. China’s effective tariff rate was set to be 54% until Trump threatened to double it Monday.

“If China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th,” Trump said on Truth Social. “Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated! Negotiations with other countries, which have also requested meetings, will begin taking place immediately.”

However, instead of backing down, China, which has also thrown off negotiations to sell TikTok to a U.S. buyer until after trade negotiations are completed, called Trump’s threat “completely groundless” and a “typical unilateral bullying practice.”

“The countermeasures China has taken are aimed at safeguarding its sovereignty, security, and development interests and maintaining the normal international trade order. They are completely legitimate,” China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement Tuesday morning. “The U.S. threat to escalate tariffs on China is a mistake on top of a mistake and once again exposes the blackmailing nature of the U.S. China will never accept this. If the U.S. insists on its own way, China will fight to the end.”

Tuesday afternoon, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump believes “China wants to make a deal.”

“It was a mistake for China to retaliate. The president said when America is punched, he punches back harder,” she continued. “But the President believes that [Chinese President] Xi [Jinping] and China want to make a deal. They just don’t know how to get that started, and the President also wanted me to tell all of you that if China reaches out to make a deal, he’ll be incredibly gracious that he’s going to do what’s best for the American people.”

White House officials said Tuesday that roughly 70 trading partners approached the White House to enter new trade negotiations following the “Liberation Day” announcement.

TRUMP WON’T PAUSE RECIPROCAL TARIFFS TO ALLOW FOR NEGOTIATIONS

Still, Trump said he has no intention of pausing the implementation of his reciprocal agenda, scheduled for Wednesday at 12:01 a.m., to allow for trade negotiations to take place.

“We’re not looking at that. We have many, many countries that are coming to negotiate deals with us, and they’re going to be fair deals,” the president said while fielding questions in the Oval Office.