China will hike its tariff on US goods from 84 to 125 per cent from Saturday, raising the stakes in a trade war that Beijing has slammed as a “joke in the history of the world economy”.

China’s commerce ministry said tariffs between the two economic giants had become so ridiculous now that Beijing would not retaliate any further after this round, even if the US did.

It comes as a top American CEO said the uncertainty created by President Donald Trump’s erratic trade pronouncements may have already pushed the US economy into recession.

“I think we’re very close, if not in, a recession now,” Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, told CNBC.

“I think you’re going to see, across the board, just a slowdown until there’s more certainty.

“And we now have a 90-day pause on the reciprocal tariffs — that means longer, more elevated uncertainty.”

The Trump administration has whacked China, the world’s No.2 economy, with a 145 per cent tariff.

“The US alternately raising abnormally high tariffs on China has become a numbers game, which has no practical economic significance, and will become a joke in the history of the world economy,” said a China commerce ministry spokesman.

“However, if the US insists on continuing to substantially infringe on China’s interests, China will resolutely counter and fight to the end.”

The turmoil unleashed by Trump’s tariffs showed few signs of easing on Friday, with markets tumbling and foreign leaders puzzling how to respond to the biggest disruption to the world trade order in decades.

A brief reprieve for battered stocks seen after Trump decided to pause duties for dozens of countries for 90 days quickly dissipated, as attention returned to his escalating trade war with China that has fuelled global recession fears.

Global stocks fell, the dollar slid and a sell-off in US government bonds picked up pace on Friday, reigniting fears of fragility in the world’s biggest bond market. Gold, a safe haven for investors in times of crisis, scaled a record high.

“Recession risk is much, much higher now than it was a couple weeks ago,” said Adam Hetts, global head of multi-asset at Janus Henderson.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried to assuage sceptics by telling a cabinet meeting on Thursday that more than 75 countries wanted to start trade negotiations.

Bessent shrugged off the renewed market turmoil on Thursday and said striking deals with other countries would bring certainty.

As Trump suddenly paused his ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on other countries hours after they came into effect earlier this week, he ratcheted up duties on Chinese imports as punishment for Beijing’s initial move to retaliate.

He has now imposed new tariffs on Chinese goods of 145 per cent since taking office, a White House official said.

Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday that he thought the US could make a deal with China and said he respected Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“In a true sense he’s been a friend of mine for a long period of time, and I think that we’ll end up working out something that’s very good for both countries,” he said.

Xi, in his first public remarks on Trump’s tariffs, told Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez during a meeting in Beijing that China and the European Union should “jointly oppose unilateral acts of bullying,” China’s state news agency Xinhua reported.

“There are no winners in a trade war,” the Chinese leader told his guest, adding that by acting together, the world’s second-largest economy and the EU could help uphold “the global rules-based order.”

European authorities estimate the impact of the US tariffs on the region’s economy would total up to one per cent of GDP. Given the EU economy as a whole is forecast to grow 0.9 per cent this year, according to the European Central Bank, the US tariffs could tip the EU into recession.

Trump’s decision for a 90-day suspension on tariffs gave room for only a “fragile pause,” French President Emmanuel Macron warned, partly because tariffs on steel, aluminium and cars remained, as well as across-the-board 10 per cent duties.

Fragile, also, “because this 90-day pause means 90 days of uncertainty for all our businesses, on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond,” Macron said on X.

-with agencies