Washington (AFP) – US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he was not in a hurry to speak with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, despite expectations that they would hold talks after announcing tit-for-tat tariffs in a growing trade conflict. Beijing said it was imposing levies on imports of US energy, vehicles, and equipment in a return salvo minutes after Trump’s threatened tariffs on Chinese goods came into effect Tuesday. A day prior, Trump suspended duties on Mexico and Canada for a month after both countries vowed to step up measures to counter flows of the drug fentanyl and the crossing of undocumented migrants into the United States. Trump had signaled earlier that the talks with Xi could take place early this week, but addressing reporters at the White House Tuesday afternoon, he said he was in “no rush” to talk to Xi.
US stock markets shrugged off weakness on Tuesday, but Chinese stocks saw volatility after markets opened Wednesday as the US Postal Service said it was suspending inbound package shipments from China and Hong Kong “until further notice.” Letters and flats, it said, would not be impacted. Trump had imposed fresh 10 percent tariffs on Chinese goods, on top of levies that were already in place against Washington’s biggest economic competitor. Mexico and Canada had faced 25 percent tariffs. Trump’s tariff order also eliminated a duty-free exemption for low-value packages, a move that could delay packages of Chinese-founded online retailers Shein and Temu from entering the country. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that Trump was due to talk to Xi, but on Tuesday she said she had no “updates on when that call will take place.” “He is not going to allow China to continue to source and distribute deadly fentanyl into our country, that was the reason for this tariff,” Leavitt told reporters outside the West Wing of the White House.
China unveiled 15 percent levies on imports of coal and liquefied natural gas from the United States, while crude oil, agricultural machinery, big-engined vehicles, and pickup trucks face 10 percent duties. Beijing says it will also probe US tech giant Google and the US fashion group that owns Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. China’s government stated that the measures were in response to the “unilateral tariff hike” by Washington. It said it would also file a complaint to the World Trade Organization over the “malicious” levies. Additionally, it unveiled fresh export controls on rare metals and chemicals including tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, and molybdenum, used in a range of industrial appliances. China is a major market for US energy exports, and according to Beijing customs data, imports of oil, coal, and LNG totaled more than $7 billion last year. But that is dwarfed by China’s imports from more friendly powers such as Russia, from which it purchased $94 billion-worth last year.
Trump has made tariffs a key foreign policy tool of his second term, joking that the word tariff is the “most beautiful” in the dictionary. The Republican billionaire said his duties aimed to punish countries for failing to halt flows of illegal migrants and drugs including the powerful opioid fentanyl into the United States. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau both struck last-minute deals with Trump on Monday to tighten border measures, leading to a 30-day pause on threatened levies. Talks will continue for the next month on broader pacts. Mexico said Tuesday it had begun the 10,000-strong border troop deployment it had promised Trump as part of the agreement to halt tariffs. “The deployment has already started,” Sheinbaum told reporters. More than 450,000 people have been murdered countrywide since Mexico launched a major offensive against drug cartels in 2006. Trudeau said Canada would appoint a “Fentanyl Czar” and list drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
© 2024 AFP
