The president of the United States, Donald Trump, announced this Friday that he will impose 100% tariffs on China starting November 1, a country he accuses of having adopted an “extremely hostile” trade stance by wanting to impose controls on the export of rare earths.
Trump thus specified the threat made hours before, when he said that he planned a “massive increase” in tariffs on Chinese products and stated that he no longer plans to meet with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, as planned at the end of October in South Korea.
Those statements had caused US stock markets to plunge, with falls of more than 3% in the Dow Jones, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, reflecting investor concern about the impact of tariffs and export controls on the US economy.
According to Trump, China announced that in November it will impose massive export controls on all its products, even some that it does not manufacture, “affecting all countries.”
In retaliation, the Republican continued, the United States will impose a 100% tariff on China starting November 1, or even before, in addition to the tariffs that are already applied. It also announced that it will impose export controls on Chinese software.
Trump's announcement reflects the biggest disagreement with China since both powers agreed to a tariff truce to negotiate a reduction in tariffs, after the trade war intensified by Trump last April and which imposed tariffs on the Asian giant of up to 145%.
Trump and Xi held a phone call on September 18 in which they approved a preliminary agreement to allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States and agreed to meet at the end of October in South Korea during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' summit.