President Trump's escalating tariff battle with China is rattling the global economy and raising questions about how the standoff will end.

Trump this week announced a 90-day pause on his sweeping tariffs against dozens of countries, but he bumped up import taxes on China to a staggering 145 percent total. China hit back by upping its own tariffs to 125 percent on Friday, raising the stakes as the hikes roil global markets.

Trump has insisted that China “wants to make a deal” but doesn’t “know how quite to go about it,” while leaders in Beijing have capped their latest hikes, warning that the battle risks becoming “a joke in the history of the world economy.”

The tense back-and-forth between global superpowers raises questions about Trump’s endgame and the potential economic impacts of an escalating trade war, as the president contends tariffs will reduce the trade deficit and bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.

“What’s the endgame here? Are we really going to reshore manufacturing based in China? And if we’re hitting every country on earth with additional tariffs, where are we going to see companies flee China to?” said Marc Busch, a professor of international business diplomacy at Georgetown University, who’s also an opinion contributor to The Hill. “They’re not coming back to the United States, so what is the endgame here?”

Trump announced the latest tariff hike on China on Wednesday, increasing it after slapping the country with 104 percent rate that day. A White House official said Thursday the rate is now 145 percent on China, given an additional 20 percent includes sectors that the reciprocal tariffs do not cover.

At the same time, Trump implemented a 90-day reprieve from the “Liberation Day” tariffs against all other trading partners, which brought quick relief to the stock market, as he

© The Hill