US President Donald Trump imposes 100% tariffs on Chinese goods, escalating trade war

US President Donald Trump announced the imposition of additional 100% tariffs on Chinese products, “over and above the already existing ones,” with effect from 1st November. 

The decision, published via the Truth Social platform, signals a new escalation in trade relations between Washington and Beijing.

The announcement came just hours after Beijing imposed restrictions on exports of rare earth minerals, which are critical for the production of electronics, vehicles, and weapons systems. Trump responded with a warning of a “massive tariff increase,” while simultaneously ruling out any possibility of meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

In his post, the American president described China’s stance as “extremely aggressive” and “unheard of in international trade,” alleging that Beijing had been planning to impose large-scale export controls for some time. He stressed that the new tariffs concern the United States exclusively and will be accompanied by controls on the export of critical software.

Trump noted that “it’s impossible to believe that China would take such a measure, but they did, and the rest is history.”

Wall Street reacted negatively to the announcements, recording its largest daily decline since last April. The Dow Jones fell by 1.90% (–878 points) to 45,479 points, the S&P 500 dropped by 2.71% to 6,552 points, while the Nasdaq recorded a “plunge” of 3.56%, closing at 22,204 points.

The US President’s move is expected to intensify the confrontation with Beijing and create turmoil in international markets over the coming months.