Trump said goods from China would be hit with a 34 per cent reciprocal tariff. Crucially, this will be on top on an existing 20 per cent tariff, taking the levy imposed by the president on imports from the US’s second-largest trading partner to at least 54 per cent.

US President Donald Trump announced plans for sweeping tariffs Wednesday, saying “our country has been looted, pillaged, raped, plundered” by other nations. The aggressive rhetoric came as Trump showed a willingness to dismantle a global economic system that the United States helped to build after World War II.