Just hours after a burgeoning trade war with Mexico and Canada was put on a one-month pause, President Donald Trump’s 10% tariff on goods imported from China took effect on Tuesday, immediately followed by a new set of retaliatory tariffs by China on American-made goods.
The new Chinese tariffs range from 10% to 15%, but unlike the Trump tariffs, they are not comprehensive, applying instead to a specific set of goods. Chinese importers will pay an additional 10% fee on U.S. crude oil, agricultural equipment, large cars and pickup trucks, and 15% on U.S. coal and liquified natural gas. The Chinese government also placed new universal restrictions on the export of five minerals (tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum and indium) used in high-tech manufacturing, and Chinese officials said they plan to investigate U.S. tech giant Google for possible anticompetitive behavior.
In a statement, China’s Ministry of Finance accused the U.S. of violating an international trade agreement. “On February 1, 2025, the U.S. government announced that it would impose a 10% tariff on all Chinese goods exported to the U.S. on the grounds of fentanyl and other issues,” the ministry said. “The U.S.'s unilateral imposition of tariffs seriously violates the rules of the World Trade Organization. It is not only unhelpful in solving its own problems, but also undermines the normal economic and trade cooperation between China and the U.S.”
A measured response: Trade experts said the Chinese response was less severe than feared, signaling that Chinese officials are treading lightly, even as they maintain room to maneuver. Notably, China did not impose new tariffs on U.S. agricultural products, sparing Trump from a potential source of political pain among key supporters; China imports about $35 billion worth of farm goods per year from the U.S.
“They have a menu of options for retaliation,” Wendy Cutler, a former U.S. trade negotiator, told The Washington Post. “They wanted to respond proportionately and swiftly. There’s a lot more they can do.”
This is not the first confrontation between Trump and China. In 2018, during his first administration, Trump raised tariffs on Chinese imports and China retaliated with tariffs of its own. Former President Joe Biden maintained the Trump tariffs for the most part and expanded on them in some cases. One result of that continuous pressure is that China is better prepared to respond to the U.S. this time around if Trump decides to maintain or increase the new tariffs.
“They have a much more developed export control regime,” said Philip Luck, a former State Department official, per CBS News. “We depend on them for a lot of critical minerals: gallium, germanium, graphite, a host of others. So ... they could put some significant harm on our economy.”
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office Tuesday afternoon, Trump dismissed concerns about a trade war. “That’s fine. We’re going to do very well against China and against everybody else,” he said in response to a question about the retaliatory tariffs. “Right now, they’ve taken advantage of the Biden administration like I’ve never see. The deficit with China is about a trillion dollars. Think of it, a trillion dollars. They’re using our money to build their military.”
On Monday, Trump said he was prepared to raise tariffs even higher. “That was just an opening salvo,” he told reporters, referring to the tariffs that he formally announced over the weekend. “If we can’t make a deal with China, then the tariffs will be very substantial.”