Hong Kong authorities have accused the United States of “bullying” after Washington raised tariffs on imports from both the semi-autonomous Chinese region and mainland China to 125%.
In a statement released late Wednesday, a Hong Kong government spokesman said the measures announced hours earlier by U.S. President Donald Trump “are bullying and irrational.”
Officials expressed “strong disapproval and discontent” not only with the tariff hike but also with the end of the exemption from customs duties for small packages sent by mail, which will take effect on May 2.
“To ship items to the United States, the public in Hong Kong must be prepared to pay exorbitant fees due to Washington’s irrational and intimidating actions,” the city government lamented.
Hong Kong Post will not assist the United States in collecting any tariffs, but the statement warned that there could be a “temporary suspension” of postal services to the United States later.
“The US no longer stands for free trade, arbitrarily undermining the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules jointly established by the international community, seriously damaging the multilateral trading system and the globalization process, and disrupting the global supply chain,” the Hong Kong government spokesperson lamented.
The statement recalled that the territory “has never implemented any tariffs”, so the imposition of fees, described by Trump as reciprocal, “is totally illogical and unfounded, fully demonstrating that it is an act of intimidation to suppress its competitors”.
On April 3, the US Presidency released the formula used to justify the tariffs, which ignores existing trade barriers and simply divides the trade balance (the difference between imports and exports) by the value of imports.
According to the White House, China is taxing American products at 67%. This is despite the fact that in 2024, Beijing will apply an average tariff of 4.9%, according to WTO statistics.
The government of the region neighboring Macau promised to “take measures to defend Hong Kong’s legitimate interests, including filing a complaint in accordance with the WTO dispute settlement mechanism.”
“In the meantime, we will maintain close liaison with the business community to jointly respond to the unreasonable coercion from the United States,” the statement said.
On Tuesday, ahead of the tariff hike announcement, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said the “irresponsible imposition” of tariffs was hurting international trade and accused the United States of turning its back on free trade.
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