US China Tariff War Intensifies: Trump Administration Maintains High Duties as Legal Challenges and Supply Chain Shifts Reshape Global Trade

Listeners, welcome back to China Tariff News and Tracker—your source for the latest facts, headlines, and analysis on US-China tariffs. As of September 2025, tariffs remain front and center in US economic and foreign policy under President Donald Trump. This summer, the United States has maintained some of the most aggressive tariff rates in its modern history, with duties on Chinese goods having surged as high as 145% earlier this year, before a temporary reduction. According to Wikipedia’s summary on tariffs during Trump’s second administration, after a period of escalation and retaliation—where China’s retaliatory tariffs reached 125% and the US had also ended the de minimis tariff exemption for Chinese imports—both countries met for negotiations in Switzerland. The result was a 90-day pause during which tariffs were drastically reduced to 30% on US imports from China and 10% on Chinese tariffs against US goods. Shipments below the $800 de minimis threshold saw US tariffs drop to 54%. In late July, both powers agreed to further extend this truce for another 90 days. Bloomberg News and AInvest.com report that the average effective US tariff on Chinese goods reached 51.1% in May, driving a five-month contraction in China’s manufacturing sector and accelerating the shift of production and supply chains toward ASEAN, India, and Mexico. While China’s exports to nearby partners are up, it hasn’t been enough to fully offset losses from American tariffs, and US tariffs on other regional partners have complicated this realignment. A section 301 investigation led the US Trade Representative to extend 164 specific product exclusions and 14 manufacturing equipment exclusions, providing relief to select US importers. These exclusions are now set to last through November 29, 2025. The legal environment has heated up. In August, a federal appeals court ruled that most of Trump’s global tariffs—including major China duties—violated the constitutional authority of Congress to set tariffs. CBS News and Fox Business confirm that while those tariffs remain in effect until mid-October as the Supreme Court reviews the case, legal experts stress the possibility that average tariff rates could plummet from the current 19.5% to near 6.4% if courts uphold the ruling. The Trump administration has vowed to fight on, with Attorney General Pam Bondi affirming a Supreme Court appeal, and officials seeking alternate legal strategies to keep the tariffs in place. Meanwhile, according to Fox Business and CPRAM, tariff revenues have soared. US government tariff income hit $183.1 billion by late August and could cross $300 billion in 2025, as average US tariffs—across all nations, excluding China—now sit above 20%. President Trump touts this income as vital to addressing the US’s $37.2 trillion national debt. For US businesses, Business Insider highlights how new tariffs have pushed CEOs to review every product shipment for accurate classification, as increases sometimes This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.