HONG KONG — Chinese state media warned the Trump administration Tuesday against striking deals that sideline China, after the president announced that Asian countries would face higher tariffs starting Aug. 1, unless other arrangements are agreed on before then.
“If such situations arise, China will not accept them and will resolutely take countermeasures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” the People’s Daily, a state-run newspaper, said in a commentary.
President Donald Trump said there would be 25% import tariffs on U.S. allies South Korea and Japan, 36% on Thailand and Cambodia, 35% on Bangladesh, 32% on Indonesia, 40% on Myanmar and Laos, and 25% on Malaysia.
While Trump did not explicitly name China in the tariff announcement, he did issue an overall warning: If the goods are being transshipped — meaning they originate in one country, typically China, and are shipped to a second country before being sent to the U.S. — these middleman countries could even face higher duties. He did not specify what that increase might be.
Asia has experienced a surge in imports from China in recent weeks, growing at an average of 21.7% year over year in March-April, up from 17.3% in February, according to an analysis last month by the global investment bank Nomura, which said transshipments were flowing through Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and India.
While transshipment is a common logistics strategy to consolidate orders and reduce shipment costs, the practice is seen by the Trump administration as a tactic used by China to bypass high import levies when shipping products to the U.S.
“Goods transshipped to evade a higher Tariff will be subject to that higher Tariff,” Trump said in letters to the countries that he posted on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Chinese state media accused the Trump administration of sowing chaos in the trading system, with the People’s Daily in its commentary calling the tariffs a “typical act of unilateral bullying, which seriously disrupts the normal international trade order and must be firmly opposed.”
When asked about Trump’s announcement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China’s position has not changed. “There are no winners in tariff wars or trade wars, and protectionism harms the interests of all parties,” she told reporters at a briefing Tuesday.
China has until Aug. 12 to reach an agreement with the White House.
In his Truth Social posts, Trump began notifying the Asian countries of higher tariffs that would come into effect from Aug. 1, delaying all but 10% of his April duties.
The new deadline is “firm but not 100% firm,” he told reporters Monday. “If they call up and they say, would like to do something a different way, we’re going to be open to that.”
Last week, Vietnam secured a deal with the Trump administration that lowered tariffs on its exports to the U.S. from 46% to 20%, with the duties on transshipped goods at 40%.
Trump’s announcement that Japanese imports will face a 25% levy was “truly regrettable,” Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Tuesday, stressing his government would avoid making “simplistic compromises.”
“We are doing our utmost to negotiate what needs to be asked and what needs to be protected,” he said.
Ishiba said Japan will continue to protect its national interests and that he had directed his ministers to continue negotiations with their U.S. counterparts through the extended deadline of Aug. 1.
Meanwhile, South Korea said it will “accelerate negotiations” to achieve a “mutually beneficial outcome.”
“There was insufficient time to reach agreement on all issues,” the country’s trade ministry said Monday in a statement, welcoming the extended deadline.
