President Donald Trump on Friday said the U.S. is considering imposing a “massive” tariff hike on China in the latest move amid an ongoing trade dispute between the two countries.
Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform that China is telling other countries they want to impose export controls on rare earth minerals, which are critical components for advanced technologies ranging from semiconductors to smartphones.
“Some very strange things are happening in China! They are becoming very hostile, and sending letters to Countries throughout the World, that they want to impose Export Controls on each and every element of production having to do with Rare Earths, and virtually anything else they can think of, even if it’s not manufactured in China,” the president wrote.
“Nobody has ever seen anything like this but, essentially, it would ‘clog’ the Markets, and make life difficult for virtually every Country in the World, especially for China,” Trump explained. “We have been contacted by other Countries who are extremely angry at this great Trade hostility, which came out of nowhere.”
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In response to China’s move to impose export controls on rare earths, Trump said that he will be forced to “financially counter their move.”
“One of the Policies that we are calculating at this moment is a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States of America,” he explained. “There are many other countermeasures that are, likewise, under serious consideration.”
Trump said that the U.S. relationship with China has “been a very good one” over the past six months, which made the Chinese government’s move “even more surprising.”
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He added that he felt China has “been lying in wait, and now, as usual, I have been proven right!”
“There is no way that China should be allowed to hold the World ‘captive,’ but that seems to have been their plan for quite some time, starting with the ‘Magnets’ and, other Elements they have quietly amassed into somewhat of a Monopoly position, a rather sinister and hostile move, to say the least,” Trump continued.
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“But the U.S. has Monopoly positions also, much stronger and more far reaching than China’s. I have just not chosen to use them, there was never a reason for me to do so — UNTIL NOW! The letter they sent is many pages long, and details, with great specificity, each and every Element that they want to withhold from other Nations. Things that were routine are no longer routine at all,” Trump wrote.
“For every Element that they have been able to monopolize, we have two. I never thought it would come to this but perhaps, as with all things, the time has come,” Trump said, noting that while it may be “potentially painful” it will ultimately be “a very good thing, in the end, for the U.S.A.”
Trump also said that he was planning to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in two weeks at the APEC summit in South Korea — but that following China’s move “there seems to be no reason to do so.”
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