Major US-listed Chinese stocks dropped following a decisive US election win for Republican nominee and former president Donald Trump, who threatened new tariffs on the campaign trail with a particular focus on Chinese impots.
Shares of US-listed Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (BABA) shares fell as much as 4.5%, while JD.com (JD) dropped as much as 7.7%, Bilibili (BILI) stock fell up to 7.8%, Baidu (BIDU) sank as much as 2.9%, and PDD Holdings (PDD) tumbled up to 5.1%. The stocks pared losses as the morning continued.
Overnight in China, the Hang Seng Index (^HSI) dropped 2.2% while the Shanghai Composite Index (000001.SS) fell less than 0.1%.
During the campaign, Trump promised to implement tariffs at levels unseen since the Great Depression.
The President-elect suggested imposing 10%-20% tariffs across the board and a 60% tariff on goods from China, which would cost US families an extra $1,700 to $2,600 per year, according to a September report from the nonpartisan Peterson Institute for International Economics. The United States imported $3.8 trillion worth of goods in 2023.
Trump in his last term was largely successful in enacting restrictive trade policies, and as Yahoo Finance’s Ben Werschkul has reported, Trump has considerable authority to act unilaterally to make good on his latest tariff promises.
The Peterson Institute in its report said that such trade policies from Trump could also result in retaliatory tariffs on US goods imported by other countries, squeezing US businesses.
“To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is tariff, and it’s my favorite word,” Trump told Bloomberg in an interview Oct. 15 at the Economic Club of Chicago. “It needs a public relations firm.”
Trump has said he will enact such tariffs “quickly.”
Coupled with his proposed mass deportation effort and immigration curbs, Trump’s tariffs could hit GDP growth by roughly 1% and add 1% to inflation, according to a report from Capital Economics published late Tuesday.
Trump has proposed using such tariffs to fund government programs rather than income taxes. Still, those tariffs would likely raise more than $200 billion annually, far short of the estimated $7.75 trillion in federal debt Trump’s other policies are expected to rack up.
To be sure, both parties have taken restrictive stances on trade with China. The Biden administration increased tariffs on $18 billion worth of imports from China in May. While Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris was critical of the Trump campaign’s tariff proposals, she was expected to keep current, higher duties in place.