This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
China expressed “strong dissatisfaction and opposition” to U.S. President Donald Trump’s imposition of a 10% tariff on all Chinese imports and vowed to take “corresponding countermeasures.”
Trump signed an executive order on Feb. 1, imposing the tariff on goods from China, accusing it of not doing enough to combat the smuggling of the opioid fentanyl into the United States, while criticizing China’s high trade surplus with the U.S.
China’s foreign and commerce ministries denounced the action, vowing to file a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization, or WTO.
“There are no winners in trade wars or tariff wars. The U.S.’s unilateral tariff hikes seriously violate WTO rules, fail to solve its own problems, and harm both sides as well as the global economy,” the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
The ministry added fentanyl was “a U.S. problem,” saying that at the request of the United States, China was the first country in the world to officially regulate all fentanyl-related substances in 2019.
“The U.S. should take an objective and rational approach to addressing its fentanyl problem rather than resorting to tariff threats against other countries,” the ministry said.
Fentanyl is a highly potent synthetic opioid that U.S. authorities blame for killing tens of thousands of Americans every year. Precursors for the drug are produced in China and then turned into fentanyl by Mexican transnational drug trafficking groups to be smuggled into America.
Efforts to stem the outflow of fentanyl precursors from China formed a key part of former U.S. President Joe Biden’s diplomacy with Beijing. A pledge from Chinese President Xi Jinping to crack down on precursor exports was one of three major outcomes of a summit between Biden and Xi in San Francisco in 2023.
In the months after that meeting, Biden administration officials largely credited their Chinese counterparts with following through on their promises, but Trump said that still not enough was being done.
Tariffs on Canada, Mexico
Besides China, Trump has also imposed a 25% additional tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico over fentanyl smuggling and what Trump says is their failure to stop the flow of cross-border migrants.
The White House said that the tariffs are being imposed under the authority of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, which grants the president power to regulate commerce after declaring a national emergency in response to any unusual and extraordinary threat to the country.
China’s relatively mild response stood in contrast to Canada’s strong retaliation and sharp language, as well as Mexico’s, the largest buyer of U.S. exports.
Canada announced it would impose a 25% retaliatory tariff on U.S. goods worth 107 billion U.S. dollars for Trump’s tariff measures.
As for Mexico, President Claudia Sheinbaum also said she would order retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. but had not provided details by the time of publication.
She said in a statement on X that the Mexican government sought to address the issue through dialogue rather than confrontation but had now been “forced to take reciprocal action.”
