Donald Trump’s BIG statement amid tariff war with China: ‘They forced me to…’

US President Donald Trump (Image credit: Reuters)

US President Donald Trump said that “high customs duties imposed on China are not sustainable.” “It’s not sustainable,” Trump said in an interview with Fox Business, the clip of which was released on Friday, October 17. “But the number is like that, it probably can’t last, you know, but they forced me to do it,” he added.

After China’s Xi Jinping announced new export controls on rare earth minerals vital to US industries, Trump announced a comprehensive new tariff package that would impose 100 percent additional tariffs on imports from China, bringing the total tariff burden on goods from China to 130 percent.

“In response to China’s export control on rare earths and related products, the United States will impose a 100 percent tariff on China beyond any tariffs it currently pays,” he said in a post on Truth Social.

He also announced that the US would impose “export controls on all critical software” starting November 1 and accused Beijing of adopting an “unprecedented and hostile” position in trade relations. In response, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Commerce argued that while Beijing does not want a trade war, it is “not afraid of one either,” and warned that “deliberately threatening high tariffs is not the right way to get along with China.”

Trump will likely meet with Xi

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent expressed confidence on Wednesday that progress will be made in trade negotiations with China, emphasizing that US President Donald Trump plans to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping “in the near future” and that the meeting is expected to take place at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit later this month.

With inputs from ANI