Washington:
In a move that escalate the trade war between the United States and China, President Donald Trump on Friday imposed an additional 100 per cent tariff on Beijing. The 79-year-old Republican president also said the US would also put ‘export controls on any and all critical software’ that would come into effect from November 1.
In a long post on Truth Social, Trump accused China of taking an ‘extraordinarily aggressive position’ on trade by imposing ‘large scale export controls’ from next month on every product they make. This would affect all countries, he said, adding that China had devised this plan years ago.
“It is absolutely unheard of in International Trade, and a moral disgrace in dealing with other Nations,” the US President said. “It is impossible to believe that China would have taken such an action, but they have, and the rest is History.”
Meeting with Xi cancelled?
Though he has imposed more tariffs on the China, Trump said he hasn’t cancelled his planned meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. However, when asked by reporters at White House whether he would revoke the additional tariffs, Trump said he will “have to see what happens”. “That’s why I made it November 1,” he noted.
“No, I haven’t cancelled. However, I’m not sure if we’ll have it. I’ll be there regardless. I would assume we might have it. However, they hit the world with something. It was shocking. Out of the blue, they came up with this whole import-export concept, and nobody knew anything about it,” he said.
Trump’s decision to impose additional 100 per cent tariffs on China come in response to Beijing’s move to tighten curbs on rare earth exports. As per the Chinese government, foreign firms would now need a special approval to ship the metallic elements abroad. It also announced that any export requests for products used in military goods would be rejected.
