US President Donald Trump has said that the US is planning to double the earlier outlined 10 per cent import tariffs on Chinese goods beginning on Tuesday
The US administration, in its economic showdown with China, has said the tariffs on China were imposed for its alleged role in the fentanyl drug trade.
“A large percentage of these drugs, many of them in the form of fentanyl, are made in and supplied by China,” Trump declared on his Truth Social account.
“Until it stops, or is seriously limited, the proposed TARIFFS scheduled to go into effect on MARCH fourth will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled.
“China will likewise be charged an additional 10% tariff on that date,” he added.
“Drugs are still pouring into our country from Mexico and Canada at very high and unacceptable levels,” he wrote. “We cannot allow this scourge to continue to harm the USA.”
On Wednesday, after his first cabinet meeting, Trump said that the tariffs due to go into effect March 4 for Mexican and Canadian imports might be delayed if the two US neighbours, its largest trading partners, could prove they are doing an “excellent job” fighting fentanyl imports and refugees.
The Chinese embassy in Washington said it was tough on counter-narcotics in terms of both policy and implementation and said they were doing everything to address concerns raised by the Donald administration.
“The unilateral tariffs imposed by the US will not solve its own problems, nor will it benefit the two sides of the world,” said embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu.
“The US needs to view and solve its fentanyl issue objectively and rationally, cherish China’s goodwill, and instead of threatening other countries with arbitrary tariff hikes.”
Pengyu added that many of Trump’s stated reasons for his hugely disruptive trade announcements lie on questionable grounds and threaten the global trade war.
Despite Trump’s claim that “more than 100,000 people died last year due to the distribution of these dangerous and highly addictive POISONS.”
Data from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention suggest that the estimated figure is just 55,126 till September 2024, which indicates that the number of fatalities as a result of fentanyl drug overdoses has dropped considerably from 79,432 in the year before.
