US President Donald Trump has announced plans to impose an additional 100% tariff on all Chinese goods, a move that dramatically escalates trade tensions between the two nations. The new duties are set to take effect on November 1, on top of the existing 30% tariffs already in place on Chinese imports.
The announcement came in retaliation after China placed new, expanded export controls on rare earths, which are critical for high-tech manufacturing.
The US President stated the new 100% tariffs were “reciprocal” and could go into effect sooner than November 1 “depending on any further actions or changes taken by China.”
Writing on his Truth Social platform, Trump claimed: “It has just been learned that China has taken an extraordinarily aggressive position on Trade in sending an extremely hostile letter to the World, stating that they were going to, effective November 1st, 2025, impose large scale Export Controls on virtually every product they make, and some not even made by them.”
He called the action “absolutely unheard of in international trade, and a moral disgrace in dealing with other Nations.”
The proposed measures would result in a combined tariff rate of 130% on Chinese goods imported into the US. The President also plans to impose export controls on “any and all critical software.”
The imposition of these new tariffs threatens to reignite a trade war that was paused after rounds of negotiations earlier this year.
Earlier on Friday, Trump had threatened to cancel a planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea, scheduled to take place in nearly three weeks. Trump initially said there was no reason to hold the meeting after China announced the dramatic expansion of its rare earth element export controls.
However, on Friday evening, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that the meeting had not been officially canceled. “No I haven’t canceled but I don’t know that we’re gonna have it,” he said. “But I’m gonna be there regardless so I would assume we might have it.”
The meeting between the two leaders was announced by Trump but was never formally confirmed by China. Beijing currently dominates the global market for rare earths.
