Trump Plans 10% Tariff On China

Washington: US President Donald Trump has said he is considering to impose a 10 per cent tariff on Chinese imports starting February 1 to curb the flow of deadly drug fentanyl that Beijing sends to Mexico and Canada. Fentanyl is a highly addictive synthetic opioid, which, according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), presents the deadliest drug threat in the country. The DEA also says that the global fentanyl supply chain ‘often starts with chemical companies based in China’.

“We’re talking about a tariff of 10 per cent on China based on the fact that they’re sending fentanyl to Mexico and Canada,” Trump said on Saturday at a joint news conference at the White House along with Oracle CTO Larry Ellison, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, and Open AI CEO Sam Altman. In response to a question, Trump said he is looking at February 1 as the date for imposing the tariffs. According to The New York Times newspaper, these would come on top of the tariffs that Trump imposed on more than $300 billion worth of Chinese imports during his first term. These were kept in place by former president Joe Biden, who also imposed additional tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, solar cells, semiconductors and advanced batteries. “For Mexico and China, we’re talking about approximately 25 per cent (tariffs),” Trump said.