On April 8, 2025, President Trump, acting under the authority of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (“IEEPA”), issued an Executive Order (“EO”) titled “Amendment to Reciprocal Tariffs and Updated Duties as Applied to Low-Value Imports from the People’s Republic of China.” The EO modifies the previous April 2, 2025 Executive Order by increasing the previously-set reciprocal rate on Chinese imports from 34% to 84%.  The move follows President Trump’s warning earlier in the week on Truth Social, where he threatened to raise the Chinese tariff rate by 50% unless China rescinded its 34% retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports.

The EO also amended the tariffs and flat fees applicable from May 2, 2025, which will now be increased as follows:

• The tariff on postal items is increased from 30% to 90% of the package’s value or a flat fee per postal item.

• The flat fee is increased from $25 to $75.
• This flat fee was set to increase to $50 on June 1, 2025. This fee is now increased from $50 to $150.

On the same day, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) issued a Cargo Systems Messaging Service (CSMS) Message #64687696, updating the previous CSMS 64680374 to reflect the new duty rate on Chinese goods for those entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, starting at 12:01 a.m. ET on April 9, 2025.  As noted in the updated CSMS, the exemptions outlined in Annex II of the April 2, 2025, Executive Order remain in effect.

As a result, when the newly announced duty rate is combined with the existing 20% tariff on Chinese goods—imposed in response to China’s involvement in the fentanyl trade—the total effective duty on imports from China now soars to an astonishing 104%. For products from China already facing additional “Section 301 tariffs,” the cumulative duty could rise even further.

The Husch Blackwell Trade team continues to monitor developments and will provide additional updates as they arise.