HONG KONG—Equities tumbled on Wednesday after US President Donald Trump ramped up his trade war by hitting China with tariffs of more than 100 percent and sweeping measures against dozens of trading partners came into effect.
After a brief respite on Tuesday, investors were once again panicking amid fears the Trump’s blow to commerce will spark a global recession.
India and New Zealand’s central banks cut interest rates to shore up their economies, while speculation that Beijing will unveil stimulus measures helped Shanghai and Hong Kong stocks buck the downward trend.
China and the United States were headed for a vicious standoff after Trump threatened fresh tariffs of 50 percent in response to Beijing’s retaliation in kind to his initial 34 percent duty announced last week.
With China already subject to a 20 percent toll, its exporters are now facing tariffs of up to 104 percent.
Beijing has blasted what it called US blackmail and vowed to “fight it to the end”, fanning worries the crisis could spiral out of control. AFP