WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump has reignited his trade war with Beijing, announcing sweeping new 100 percent tariffs on Chinese goods and threatening to cancel a long-anticipated meeting with President Xi Jinping later this month, according to Hurriyet Daily News.
Trump said the fresh duties along with new export restrictions on “any and all critical software”, would take effect November 1 in response to what he called China’s “extraordinarily aggressive” curbs on rare earth mineral exports.
“It is impossible to believe that China would have taken such an action, but they have, and the rest is history,” Trump wrote Friday on Truth Social.
The announcement sent shockwaves through global markets, with the Nasdaq plunging 3.6 percent and the S&P 500 dropping 2.7 percent amid renewed fears of a trade freeze between the world’s two largest economies.
Rare earth elements crucial for smartphones, electric vehicles, military systems, and clean energy technologies; are dominated by China’s production and processing network. Washington has long accused Beijing of using them as geopolitical leverage.
Trump’s decision comes just two weeks before he was scheduled to meet Xi at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea; the leaders’ first encounter since Trump’s return to office in January.
“I was to meet President Xi in two weeks… but now there seems to be no reason to do so,” he wrote, though later told reporters he hadn’t yet canceled the meeting.
Beijing responded Friday by announcing “special port fees” on U.S.-built and operated vessels, following earlier American charges on Chinese linked shipping.
The renewed confrontation marks a sharp turn in what had appeared to be a fragile thaw, including progress on TikTok’s U.S. ownership negotiations and easing tensions over technology exports.
Trump accused China of “lying in wait,” calling its latest actions “hostile” and “out of nowhere.” He added that several countries had contacted Washington to express concern about Beijing’s escalating trade posture.
