Trump’s tariffs are officially in effect, including 104 percent on China

President Donald Trump’s promised higher tariffs have gone into effect today, targeting many countries whose goods imported to the US were already subject to a 10 percent base tariff that started on April 5th. China has already retaliated in an escalation of Trump’s global trade war.

The White House announced the tariffs on April 2nd, dubiously claiming they were “reciprocal” based on a nonsensical formula that far exceeded conventionally calculated tariffs. At the same time it declared a national emergency and stated that the higher tariffs would stay until Trump “determines that the threat posed by the trade deficit and underlying nonreciprocal treatment is satisfied, resolved, or mitigated.”

Countries targeted for higher tariffs included China at 34 percent, the EU at 20 percent, and Vietnam at 46 percent, but since the tariffs are additive, some of the real numbers are much higher — Trump had already slapped 20 percent tariffs on China, and added another 50 percent this week after China announced retaliatory measures, bringing it to a total 104 percent. That means the total tariff more than doubles import costs for everything shipped from China, including the majority of the world’s components and consumer electronics. The EU will vote on its own retaliatory tariffs today.

China announced another 50 percent tariff — matching Trump’s — on all US goods in retaliation. It’s set to go into effect on April 10th.

Some of the trade war’s effects have already been felt, with Nintendo delaying its just-announced Switch 2 preorders, Jaguar Land Rover pausing its April car shipments to the United States, and both Framework and Razer pausing some laptop sales. US memory chip maker Micron announced it would be adding a surcharge to its products on April 9th if the higher tariffs happened, and other companies are likely to follow suit soon.

Update, April 9th: Added mention of China’s additional 50 percent tariff levied in response.