President Trump said on Tuesday that he intended to impose 10 percent tariffs on Chinese imports into the United States on February 1, a decision that is sure to escalate trade tensions between the world’s largest economies.
Speaking at the White House, Mr. Trump said the tariffs were in response to China’s role in America’s fentanyl crisis. Mr. Trump said China was sending fentanyl to Canada and Mexico, from where it would be transported to the United States.
The threat of tariffs comes after Mr. Trump said Monday he planned to impose a 25 percent tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico as punishment for allowing fentanyl and illegal immigrants to cross into the United States.
“We’re talking about a 10 percent tariff in China based on the fact that they’re sending fentanyl to Mexico and Canada,” said Mr. Trump.
These duties will be added to the levies imposed by Mr. Trump on more than $300 billion worth of Chinese imports during his first term. These tariffs were kept in place by former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who imposed additional taxes on Chinese electric vehicles, solar cells, semiconductors and advanced batteries.
The commitment of Mr. Trump to hit China, Canada and Mexico with tariffs is expected to lead to retaliation against US industries. Economists have warned that a global trade war could cause inflation to rebound and dampen US economic growth.
Mr. Trump signed an executive order on Monday directing various agencies to study a wide variety of trade issues with an eye on future tariffs, but did not immediately impose new levies, as he had previously threatened.
Instead, he ordered US officials to look into the flows of immigrants and drugs from Canada, China and Mexico into the United States and the compliance of those three countries and others with their existing trade agreements with the United States.
Mr. Trump negotiated a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico during his first term: the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. He also agreed to a limited trade deal with China that was supposed to reward American farmers.
He has since said he wants to rewrite both deals during his second term.
Mr. Trump and Xi Jinping, China’s president, spoke last week and discussed trade, fentanyl and areas where the world’s two largest economies could work together.
After the tariff action of Mr. Trump against China in his first term, signed a broad economic deal in 2020.
Relations between the countries were strained during the pandemic, for which Mr. Trump blamed China, and Beijing, for failing to honor many of its agreements in the deal, including buying American agricultural products.
Scott Bessent, Mr. Chosen Trump for Treasury secretary, said during his confirmation hearing last week that he planned to pressure his Chinese counterparts to start buying U.S. farm products, as their government had promised.
The Treasury nominee also said he would push his Chinese counterparts to buy additional products to offset what the country has had to buy over the past four years.
