Asian Markets Slip as Trump Threatens Higher Tariffs

Investing.com - Asian markets fell in morning trade on Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to raise the tariffs on Chinese goods even higher. China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.4% by 10:30 PM ET (02:30 GMT), while the SZSE Component was little changed. Overnight, U.S. President Donald Trump he “will just raise the tariffs even higher” if China does not make a trade deal. The president has said late last week that China would like to have a rollback, but he “has not agreed to anything.” The news came as Bloomberg cited people familiar with the talks and reported that China demanded that all tariffs imposed after May to be removed immediately. Beijing also wanttariffs imposed before that be lifted gradually. Contrary to Trump’s comment, the article noted that the White House is debating internally to rollback certain percentage of tariff. The officials have differing views, but the internal figure under discussion ranges from around 35% to 60%, Bloomberg said. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 0.7%. Tension in the city intensified even further as the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bill supporting Hong Kong protesters, drawing criticism from China’s foreign ministry. The “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act” interferes in China’s domestic affairs, said foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang, according to an online statement in Chinese, which noted that China “strongly condemns and resolutely opposes” the act of interference. The two chambers of Congress will have to work out differences between their bills before it can be sent to Trump and become law. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 0.9% after Ministry of Finance data showed the country’s exports fell 9.2% in October from a year ago, a bigger decline than the expected 7.6% drop. Exports to China, Japan’s biggest trading partner, declined 10.3% year-on-year in October. South Korea’s KOSPI declined 1.0%. Down under, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.3%.