President Donald Trump on Thursday said his administration plans to impose a new 10% duty on Chinese imports next week, on top of the new 10% duty that went into effect earlier this month.
In a Truth Social post, Trump asserted that China continues to manufacture illegal drugs that he says are “pouring into” the U.S. across its northern and southern borders. Accordingly, the president reiterated that 25% duties on Mexico and Canada and 10% duties on Canadian energy products, will go into effect March 4 and said the new China tariff will go into effect the same day.
His comments come after the president sparked some confusion earlier in the week over the start date of the Mexico and Canada tariffs.
April 2, he said, would remain the deadline for “reciprocal” tariffs. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters on Wednesday that April 2 was the date for a “big transaction” on tariffs.
Trump also previewed new tariffs on products from the European Union of 25% this week, including cars, which he said would be announced “very soon.” The EU has already indicated it will respond “firmly and immediately against unjustified tariffs".
If the newly announced Chinese tariffs go into effect next week, it would mark the second time since taking office that Trump has hiked tariffs on Chinese imports. On Feb. 1, Trump signed an executive order implementing a new 10% tariff on Chinese imports, which went into effect Feb. 4.
That executive order included an anti-retaliation clause, which said the president may increase or expand in scope the duties” if Beijing retaliated.
China responded to the initial 10% increase in U.S. tariffs earlier this month by slapping new duties on U.S. agricultural equipment exports, crude oil and pickup trucks and other vehicles. Beijing also announced new export controls on critical minerals and launched an anti-monopoly investigation into Google.
Analysts told Agri-Pulse at the time that the retaliation had been somewhat muted, given Beijing opted to spare U.S. ag commodities, unlike in previous retaliatory measures.
Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., reiterated to Agri-Pulse in an email that "China's position is consistent and firm." Pengyu stressed that China has a robust counternarcotics policy and cooperates with the U.S. on drug control efforts.
"The unilateral tariff increase by the U.S. seriously violates [World Trade Organization] rules and is a typical act of unilateralism and trade protectionism. It undermines the foundation of China-U.S. economic and trade cooperation and is bound to affect and undermine future counternarcotics cooperation between the two sides," Pengyu added.
A White House official on Wednesday told Agri-Pulse on Wednesday that Trump is still considering whether Mexico and Canada have made sufficient progress on border security to warrant a further delay to their duties slated for March 4. During a press conference with Keir Starmer, prime minister of the United Kingdom, Trump expressed disappointment with Canada's efforts to date to prevent the flow of illegal drugs across its border.
"They should be apprehending much more," Trump told reporters. Just 0.2% of all U.S. drug seizures take place at the Canadian border, according to Customs and Border Protection data.
"As Mexico gets stronger in terms of the border, it goes up to Canada, and a lot of drugs are coming in through Canada. We can't have that," Trump added.
