Tariffs on imports from “hostile” China rise to 130% in the US

From November 1st — or even earlier, “depending on any future actions or changes taken by China”.

North American President Donald Trump announced this Friday the imposition of a 100% surcharge to imports from China, starting in November, in response to “extremely hostile” trade measures by Beijing.

From November 1 – or even earlier, “depending on any future actions or changes taken by China” – the United States will impose “a 100% tariff on China, in addition to any tariff they are currently paying”, Trump stated on the social network Truth. This surcharge adds to the 30% already in forceand represents a major escalation after months of trade truce between the countries.

Software export control

Also at the beginning of next month, he said, Washington will impose export controls on “any and all critical software”.

“We have just learned that China has taken an extraordinarily aggressive stance on trade, sending an extremely hostile letter to the world stating that, starting November 1, 2025, it will impose large-scale export control mechanisms on virtually every product it makes, including some it doesn’t even make. This affects every country without exception, and was obviously a plan drawn up years ago. It is absolutely unprecedented in international trade and a moral disgrace in relation to other nations,” Trump wrote on social media, stressing: “It is impossible to believe that China took such action, but it did, and the rest is history.”

Control over rare earths

On Thursday, Beijing announced the immediate imposition of controls on exports of technologies linked to rare earthsreinforcing regulation in a central sector in trade tensions with the United States, at a time when the two countries were negotiating a trade agreement.

The Asian country is the world’s largest producer of these essential minerals for the digital, automotive, energy and defense industries, whose production can be severely affected by the lack of these raw materials.

Rare earths have been a factor in recent Sino-US trade negotiations, with Washington accusing Beijing of deliberately delaying the approval of export licenses.

Fee swing

After Trump imposed a series of surcharges that raised the maximum rate on Chinese imports to 145% in April, the following month the two economic superpowers agreed to temporarily reduce the rate to 30% for 90 days, while negotiations between the parties were ongoing.

In August, Trump extended the 30% rate for another 90 days, until November 10. Without the extension, U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods could have escalated to 145%, while China’s retaliatory tariffs could have reached 125%, effectively approaching a trade embargo.

Shuttle of threats

Also this Friday, Trump ruled out the possibility of meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and threatened a “massive increase” in tariffs on Chinese products. Trump had announced, in mid-September, that he would meet with Xi, at the end of October, during a trip to South Korea. At the time, he also said that he would visit China “at the beginning of next year”.

The announcement was made at the end of a telephone conversation between the two leaders, who also approved an agreement on the future of the social network TikTok in the United States. The American leader highlighted that the relationship between Washington and Beijing has been good in the last six months, which, he claimed, makes this position “even more surprising”.

“There is no way to allow China to hold the world ‘captive’, but that has seemed like the plan for some time,” Trump argued, accusing Beijing of making “a very sinister and hostile move” to “quietly” accumulate monopoly positions.

But Trump warned that the US also “has monopoly positions, much stronger and more comprehensive than those of China”, he warned. “I simply chose not to use them, there was never a reason to do so – until now,” he said.