On April 9, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order titled “Modifying Reciprocal Tariff Rates to Reflect Trading Partner Retaliation and Alignment”, increasing the reciprocal tariff rates for China to 125%. Importantly, country-specific reciprocal rates for 83 countries that took effect on April 9, 2025, have been paused for a period of 90 days and are lowered to 10% starting April 10, 2025 and through at least July 9, 2025.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) issued a Cargo Systems Messaging Service (“CSMS”) Message # 64701128, confirming the increase in reciprocal tariff rates for China to 125%, and a pause in reciprocal tariffs for all other countries at 10%.

CSMS Message # 64701128 updates CSMS Message # 64687696 dated April 8, 2025, which increased the reciprocal tariff rate for China from 34% to 84%. See Husch Blackwell’s previous update here.

The reciprocal tariffs were first implemented pursuant to the April 2, 2025 Executive Order 14257, titled  “Regulating Imports with a Reciprocal Tariff to Rectify Trade Practices that Contribute to Large and Persistent Annual United States Goods Trade Deficits”. See Husch Blackwell’s previous update here.

CSMS Message # 64701128 confirms that exemptions outlined in CSMS Message # 64680374 have not been modified. This means that specific exemptions from reciprocal tariffs identified in CSMS Message # 64680374 for goods including those qualifying for preference under the US-Mexico-Canada Free Trade Agreement (USMCA), goods in transit, steel and aluminum articles and derivatives thereof as well as for passenger vehicles, light trucks and parts thereof remain unchanged.

The increase in reciprocal tariffs targeting imports from China appears to be part of an escalating trade war between the two countries. Following the imposition of the reciprocal tariffs on China and a host of other countries, China retaliated by imposing 34% tariffs against imports of U.S. goods, which led to President Trump increasing the tariffs for China by 50% to a tariff rate of 84%. Thereafter, China matched the 84% rate by increasing its retaliatory tariffs against U.S. goods by the same amount. On April 9, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order titled “Modifying Reciprocal Tariff Rates to Reflect Trading Partner Retaliation and Alignment” in response to China’s retaliation and further increased the China tariffs to 125%. On April 11, 2025, China retaliated by increasing its tariff rate on U.S. imports to 125%.

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