US President Trump has once again commented on the recently escalated customs dispute with China – but this time in a more conciliatory manner. He explained that his country wanted to help China and not harm it.
After recently adopting harsher tones, US President Donald Trump has now expressed himself in a more conciliatory manner in the customs dispute with China. The US wanted to “help China, not hurt it,” he wrote on his online mouthpiece Truth Social.
“Don’t worry about China, everything will be fine. The highly respected President Xi just had a bad moment,” said Trump, referring to Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Trump added that he doesn’t want “a depression” for his country – and he doesn’t want that himself either.
Additional tariffs of 100 percent
On Friday, the US President announced additional tariffs against China of 100 percent from November at the latest. The reason for this was Beijing’s previous announcement that it would impose stricter controls on the export of technologies related to rare earths.
The tone between the two countries then became noticeably more tense. Trump called China’s behavior “extraordinarily aggressive” and “unprecedented.” He had previously accused China of “hostile” trade practices and questioned a meeting with Xi in two weeks at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea.
Beijing accused Trump of “double standards.”
China’s Commerce Ministry said Trump’s tariff announcement was a “typical example of double standards.” Threatening high tariffs at “every opportunity” is “not the right approach” when dealing with China, it said.
Rare earths are a central issue in the trade conflict between Beijing and Washington. They are found in a range of technologies – from wind turbines to batteries for electric cars. China is an important producer of the materials and is by far the market leader in further processing. The country has filed a number of patents that prevent other countries from developing their own industries.
In view of the renewed tensions between the world’s two largest economies, prices on the New York Stock Exchange had slipped into the red. Currently, Chinese goods are subject to US tariffs of 30 percent. In return, China imposes tariffs of ten percent.
