Trump Threatens Massive Tariffs on China Following Rare Earth Export Restrictions

President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he sees "no reason" to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his upcoming South Korea trip following China's decision to restrict rare earth exports crucial for American industries.

Trump indicated he is contemplating a "massive increase" in tariffs on Chinese imports as a direct response to Beijing's recent actions.

"One of the Policies that we are calculating at this moment is a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States of America," Trump stated on his Truth Social platform. "There are many other countermeasures that are, likewise, under serious consideration."

The two largest global economies have been engaged in escalating trade tensions after earlier tariff announcements sparked a trade war. Despite previous agreements to reduce tariffs following negotiations in Switzerland and the United Kingdom, relations have deteriorated as China has moved to limit America's access to rare earth materials essential for numerous U.S. technologies.

Trump did not officially cancel his meeting with Xi but suggested it might not occur during his end-of-month trip that was scheduled to include stops in Malaysia for the ASEAN summit, Japan, and South Korea, where he was expected to meet with Xi ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

"I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so," Trump wrote.

The Chinese government announced restrictions on rare earth exports just before the planned Trump-Xi meeting. Beijing will now require foreign companies to obtain special approval for shipping these metallic elements abroad and has implemented new permitting requirements for technologies used in mining, smelting, and recycling rare earths. Additionally, China stated it would reject export requests for products used in military goods.

Trump accused China of becoming "very hostile" and holding the world "captive" by restricting access to metals and magnets critical for electronics, computer chips, lasers, jet engines, and other technologies.

"I have not spoken to President Xi because there was no reason to do so," Trump posted. "This was a real surprise, not only to me, but to all the Leaders of the Free World."

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond when asked for comment.

Trump called China's move on rare earths "especially inappropriate" considering the recent announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. He speculated, without evidence, that China might be attempting to divert attention from his role in the ceasefire, questioning whether "that timing was coincidental."

The initial tariff war between the U.S. and China caused global economic concern, with Trump imposing tariffs totaling 145% on Chinese goods and China responding with import taxes of 125% on American products.

These prohibitively high taxes effectively blocked trade between the countries, leading to negotiations that reduced U.S. tariffs to 30% and Chinese tariffs to 10% to facilitate further discussions. However, disagreements persist regarding America's access to Chinese rare earths, U.S. restrictions on China's importation of advanced computer chips, American soybean sales, and reciprocal port fees being implemented by both nations.

Craig Singleton, senior director of the China program at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, suggested Trump's statement could "mark the beginning of the end of the tariff truce" between the countries.

It remains uncertain how Trump plans to implement his threats or how China will respond.

"But the risk is clear: mutually assured disruption between the two sides is no longer a metaphor," Singleton noted. "Both sides are reaching for their economic weapons at the same time, and neither seems willing to back down."