Trump adds additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods, saying they failed to stem fentanyl flow

President Trump slapped China with an additional 10% tariff on the goods it ships to the United States, saying they’ve failed to crack down on the fentanyl flowing in the United States.

Mr. Trump amended an executive order he signed last month implementing a 10% tariff hike on China, now upping the rate to 20%.

The amended order says that the increased tariff is because of Beijing’s “failure” to “blunt the sustained influx of synthetic opioids, including fentanyl from the [People’s Republic of China] to the United States constituted an unusual and extraordinary threat.”

The announcement came just ahead of Mr. Trump’s plan to impose 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, set to take effect Tuesday.

The Canada and Mexico tariffs had been paused for a month after both countries agreed to do more to address illegal immigration and fentanyl trafficking.

Mr. Trump last month imposed the tariff on China in response to its role in the fentanyl trade. The addictive drug, which is produced in China and Mexico, has resulted in tens of thousands of overdose deaths each year in the U.S.

China responded to the initial 10% increase by levying tariffs on specific U.S. products, including coal and liquefied natural gas, crude oil, agricultural machinery and some cars. The U.S. is China’s largest trading partner on a single-country basis.

On Friday, China’s Ministry of Commerce defended its efforts to control the drug flow, calling the latest tariff threat an attempt by the White House to shift the blame for America’s addiction crisis. 

China said the U.S. needs to solve its own drug problem and denounced the tariffs as “adding to the burdens on American businesses and consumers.”

“We urge the US side to not repeat its own mistakes, and to return as soon as possible to the right track of properly resolving conflicts through dialogue on equal footing,” the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.