President Trump on Friday announced a sweeping 100% tariff on Chinese goods, escalating a high-stakes standoff over China's new restrictions on rare earth minerals vital to global technology and manufacturing. The levy will take effect no later than Nov. 1, Trump posted on Truth Social, and will replace existing tariffs applied to Chinese goods. He made the announcement soon after the markets had closed; shares plunged after Trump had threatened higher tariffs earlier in the day.
Trump also said the US would implement export controls on "any and all critical software" as part of his retaliation against China's new restrictions on rare earth minerals essential to the US economy. The announcement, and the decision earlier in the week by Chinese President Xi Jinping, could set back negotiations for a trade deal between the two nations, per the Washington Post. China said foreign companies will have to obtain a license to export products containing more than 0.1% of rare earth elements if those elements are sourced in China or processed using Chinese technology, per the Hill.
Average tariffs on imports from China now are about 57%, according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics. They reached 140% at the height of Trump's trade war earlier this year. The Chinese government announced overnight that it's launching an antitrust investigation of Qualcomm, weeks after accusing another US tech giant, Nvidia, of antitrust violations, per the Post. Although Trump's wording Friday was definitive, the AP points out that he's backed away from similar threats before.
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