WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump says he’s looking at slapping an additional 10% tariff on China, as he upped the ante on the U.S. competitor and pushed Beijing to crack down on the production and distribution of fentanyl.
On his first full day in office, Trump said he was also eying Feb. 1 for the 25% tariffs he plans to put on imports from Canada and Mexico. He indicated Tuesday evening that he may also impose tariffs on products from China, as he took questions from reporters at the White House for the second evening in a row.
“We’re talking about a tariff of 10% on China, based on the fact that they’re sending fentanyl to Mexico and Canada,” Trump said from the Roosevelt Room. “Probably, Feb. 1 is the date we’re looking at.”
The tax that Trump says he’s looking at now for China is lower than the 60% tariff he threatened to impose on Beijing last year but consistent with the 10% tax he pledged as president-elect. The move came after a call Trump had with Chinese President Xi Jinping a few days before he took office. Trump said in a social media post at the time that the leaders discussed fentanyl, TikTok and trade.
He told reporters Tuesday evening, after an announcement on AI infrastructure, that he’d spoken to mothers who had lost children to fentanyl poisoning.
“And I had that talk with President Xi the other day, too, of China. I said, ‘We don’t want that crap in our country. We got to stop it,'” Trump said. “I would have stopped it.”
Trump said during their call he and Xi also discussed the war between Russia and Ukraine.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Trump levied tariffs on China in his first term which former President Joe Biden assessed and opted to keep and selectively raise.
The United States’ largest trade deficit in 2023 was with China and came in at $279.4 billion, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Experts say tariffs could be passed onto consumers, prompt retaliatory actions and fall short of the yields that Trump envisions. However, the incoming president has signaled that he plans to use tariffs as a negotiating tactic to get other countries to change their behavior.
