4/2/2025–|Last update: 4/2/202509:37 AM (Mecca time)
The Chinese Finance Ministry announced a package of customs duties on a group of American products, in response to fees announced by US President Donald Trump and entered into force today, while the European Union threatened a decisive response that Trump’s imposition of fees on the union.
China has confirmed that it will impose 10% fees on its imports of crude oil, agricultural machines, large vehicles and small trucks from the United States.
And American customs duties of 10% on Chinese imports entered into force today, due to what Trump said that China failed to stop the flow of drugs to his country.
On Monday, Trump suspended his threat to impose customs duties by 25% on Mexico and Canada in the last moments, and agreed to stop it for 30 days in exchange for the two countries tightening control over the border with the United States and tracking organized crime.
But there was no such exemption for China, and a White House spokesman said that Trump would not speak to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping until a later time in the week.
Commercial war
During his first term in 2018, Trump began a two -year -old trade war with China because of its huge trade surplus with the United States, during which the two countries exchanged customs duties on goods hundreds of billions of dollars, which confused global supply chains and damage the global economy.
To end that trade war, China agreed in 2020 to spend an additional $ 200 billion annually on American goods, but the plan has deviated from its path due to the Kofid-19 pandemic, to expand the annual trade deficit to $ 361 billion in favor of China.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aym4vj3wgwg
Trump has warned that customs duties on China may increase more unless Beijing stopped the flow of fentanel, a fatal opium material, to the United States.
“We hope that China will stop sending fentanel to us, and if you don’t do it, the customs duties will increase significantly,” he said on Monday.
China has described Vintagane as a problem related to the United States, and said it would challenge customs duties at the World Trade Organization and will take other counter measures, but left the door open to conversations.
European response
Trump’s decisions have sparked similar moves in Europe, and European Commission President Ursula von der Line confirmed that the European Union will resolve “firmly” on the United States if the Trump administration imposes additional customs duties on its country.
After an unofficial summit of European Union leaders in the Belgian capital, Brussels, von der Line said on Monday that the union is ready for a “strong and constructive” dialogue with the United States, but at the same time it realizes the potential challenges in relations with Washington and ready for it.
She considered that the Trump administration’s decision imposing new customs duties is a step “increases operating costs, harms workers and consumers, causes unnecessary damage to economies, and also leads to high inflation.”
Trump had said earlier that he would impose customs duties on the European Union “soon” without specifying a date.
