The US leaders, Donald Trump, and China, Xi Jinping, will talk “very soon” in a phone call about the tariffs that Washington imposed on Chinese imports and Beijing's response.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, will talk on the phone about the tariffs that both countries have imposed on exports of the other.
The new Trump 10 % tariff to Chinese products Midnight entered into force on Mondayand what caused a rapid response from China with 15 % levies to coal and American liquefied natural gas, together 10 % to crude oil, agricultural machinery and some cars.
On Monday, Trump postponed for a month the imposition of 25 % tariffs on most of the exports of the other three commercial partners in the United States, Mexico and Canada. The Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, and the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, agreed to increase efforts to curb the Fentanyl flow, the opioid that has killed several hundred thousand Americans in recent years.
Trump said he imposed the tariff on Chinese exports to pressure China to take measures to prevent fentanyl smuggling to the US, which identified China as an important source of the chemical precursors used by Mexican drug cartels to make fentanil.
China on the other hand said it has taken measures to end industry and illicit drug trafficking.
“We hope China stop sending us fentanil and, if it does not, tariffs will increase substantially,” Trump said.
The White House Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said Trump's call with XI “is being programmed and will be done very soon.”
The United States and China, the two largest economies in the world, were involved in an increasingly intense commercial war in 2018 during Trump's first mandate in office, when it repeatedly increased tariffs on Chinese products, and Beijing responded every time .
This time, China is much better prepared, analysts say. The country announced numerous measures that go beyond tariffs and affect different sectors of the US economy. China is also more cautious when altering its own fragile economy and very dependent on trade.
China's tariffs and other measures
The commission of tariffs of the Council of China said in a statement that announced its tax on US products: “The unilateral increase in US tariff His own problems, but also damages normal economic and commercial cooperation between China and the United States. “
But the impact on US exports could be limited. Although the United States is the largest world exporter of liquefied natural gas, it does not export much to China. In 2023, the United States exported 173,247 million cubic feet from LNG to China, approximately 2.3 % of its total natural gas exports, according to the United States Energy Information Administration.
Last year, China imported less than 110,000 vehicles from the United States, although the automotive market analyst Lei Xing told The Associated Press that tariffs could be painful for General Motors, which is adding the Chevrolet Tahoe and the GMC Yukon to its line of products in China, and for Ford, which exports the Mustang and the F-150 Raptor truck.
In addition to the increase in tariffs, China announced export controls of several critical elements for the production of modern high -tech products.
Among them include tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum and the Indian, many of which are designated as critical minerals by the United States geological service, which means that they are essential for the economic or national security of states United and have supply chains vulnerable to interruptions.
Export controls are added to those that China imposed in December on key elements such as Gaul.
The Ministry of Commerce also included two US companies in a list of non -reliable entities: PVH Group, owner of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, and Illumina clothing companies, a biotechnology company with offices in China.
Inclusion in the list could prevent them from participating in import or export activities related to China and making new investments in the country. The Ministry said that their investigations show that the two US companies have “disturbed normal businesses with Chinese companies, have taken discriminatory measures against Chinese companies and have seriously damaged the legitimate rights of Chinese companies.”
Beijing began investigating PVH Group in September 2024, so he described as “inappropriate behavior related to Xinjiang” after the company supposedly boycott the use of Xinjiang cotton.
Illumina competes with the Chinese Biotechnology company BGI in genetic sequencing. In a statement, the company said it complies with the regulations wherever it operates.
“We are evaluating this announcement with the aim of finding a positive resolution,” said the company.
Mexico and Canada tariffs
On Monday, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum said she would send 10,000 National Guard troops to the border between the United States and Mexico to try to stop drug flow to the United States.
“Mexico will reinforce the northern border … to stop drug trafficking from Mexico to the United States, in particular fentanyl,” he published in X after talking with Trump. “The United States undertakes to work to stop high power to Mexico.”
Trudeau said that Canada would display new technology and personnel along its southern border with the United States to stop the Fentanyl flow.
“I just had a good call with President Trump,” Trudeau said in X. “The proposed tariffs will pause for at least 30 days while we work together.”
Effects on US consumers
Trump recognized on Sunday that new tariffs on the three largest business partners in the United States could affect Americans tired of inflation with higher prices for food, gasoline, cars and other consumer goods, but said that tariffs Higher “were worthwhile” to reinforce US interests.
American consumers could face higher prices because companies that pay tariffs to the federal government to import goods from other countries often transfer at least part, if not the totality, of their highest costs to consumers, instead of absorbing them the additional expenses.
(With information from The Associated Press, Agance France-Pressse and Reuters)