China girds for economic stress of Trump’s tariffs

President Donald Trump's tariffs have been good for China's economic growth. At least they were over the first three months of the year, as the country’s factories raced to ship exports before the trade restrictions.

- KEITH BRADSHER

China's National Bureau of Statistics reported yesterday that the country’s gross domestic product grew 1.2% from the last three months of 2024. If that pace continues, the Chinese economy will expand at an annual rate of 4.9%.

But whether China can maintain that growth is shrouded in uncertainty.

Pinned down by tariffs that threaten to freeze trade with its biggest customer, China's economy is facing one of its greatest challenges in years.

Growth in the early months of this year was propelled by rapidly rising exports and the manufacturing invest-mentand production necessary to support those exports. Sales of electric cars, household appliances, consumer elec-tronics and furniture were also strong because of ever-widening government subsidies for buyers.

Then on April 2, Trump started escalating tariffs, which reached an extraordinary 145% for more than half of China's exports to the United States.

Trump's first two rounds of tariffs on Chinese goods, 10% in February and again in March, had little immediate effect on exports. China's overall exports in March rose 12.4% in dollar terms from a year earlier, as some exporters appeared to rush shipments to docks before tariffs could go even higher.

But the tariff increases this month are likely to have a substantial effect on China's exports going forward. Trump also placed, and a week later paused, heavy import taxes on goods from Viet-nam, Cambodia and other countries that assemble Chinese components for shipment to the United States. Those countries still face a 10% baseline tariff that applies to nearly all US trad-ing partners.