President Trump’s tariff announcement reignites the trade war with Bejing. He also implied the tariffs could be imposed earlier “depending on any further actions or changes taken by China.”
WASHINGTON ‒ President Donald Trump said the United States will add an additional 100% tariff on all Chinese imports in retaliation to new export controls Beijing is planning for valuable rare earth minerals.
The move reignites a trade war between the world’s two largest economies after the United States and China had for months maintained a truce that has kept tariffs on each other flat.
Trump said the new tariff would go into effect on Nov. 1, adding that his administration will also impose its own export controls on “any and all critical software,” effective the same date.
“It is impossible to believe that China would have taken such an action, but they have, and the rest is History,” Trump said in an Oct. 10 post on Truth Social.
The 100% tariff would add to 30% duties the United States is currently imposing on goods from China, meaning Chinese imports would have a total tariff rate of 130%
China, the world’s largest producer of rare earths, on Oct. 9 announced it would be expanding its curbs on exports to five additional elements and adding dozens of pieces of refining technology to its export control list. Beijing also announced new rules requiring compliance from foreign producers of rare earths that use Chinese materials.
Trump later suggested he could roll back the tariffs if China scraps its export controls. “We’re going to have to see what happens,” Trump told reporters. “That’s why I made it Nov. 1.”
Rare earth minerals are vital to build microchips and semiconductors, which are used in artificial technology and electronics.
Trump threatened the massive tariffs earlier in the day ‒ sending the U.S. stock market tumbling ‒ following what he described as an “extraordinarily aggressive position on Trade” from the Chinese.
