US President Donald Trump raised customs tariffs on goods imported from China from 10 percent to 20 percent. He cites Beijing's failure to take adequate measures against the narcotraffic problem in the United States as the reason for this. The corresponding decree from the White House leader was announced.
According to the document, amendments were made to the previous decree issued on February 1 of this year, which stated that 10 percent customs tariffs had been implemented for China. According to Trump's new decree, this percentage will now be doubled to 20 percent.
“Taking into account that the PRC has not taken sufficient measures to mitigate the crisis related to the illegal drug trade, section 2(a) of executive order number 14195 is amended. Therein, the word “10 percent” is removed and replaced with “20 percent”,” says the decree announced by the White House.
According to the document, Washington accuses China of not taking sufficient measures to stop the flow of synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, into the US. US officials consider such a situation an “extraordinary and excessive threat” to the country's national security, foreign policy, and economy. Notably, Donald Trump often used the threat of imposing tariffs as a means to exert pressure on trade partners. He has repeatedly emphasized that such customs revenues could serve to finance domestic projects.
From the early days of his presidency, he had expressed readiness to impose a 10 percent tariff on Chinese imports. The reason for this was cited as the illegal narcotics being delivered to the US from China, mainly through Mexico. However, Trump indicated at that time that he did not wish to impose tariffs on imported goods, but the existing circumstances forced him to do so.
