Trump, Xi set to speak on US-China tariff battle
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• Beijing slaps levies on US energy, autos; to probe Google over violations of anti-monopoly laws
• US suspends tariffs on Mexico and Canada
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping were expected to speak by phone, after slapping tariffs on each other’s economies in an escalating trade war.
However, President Trump said on Tuesday evening he is in “no rush” to speak with Xi Jinping.
Trump spoke to reporters at the White House a day after Washington and Beijing exchanged new tariffs hitting the world’s two biggest economies.
Beijing said it was imposing levies on imports of US energy, vehicles and equipment in a return salvo minutes after Trump’s threatened tariffs on Chinese goods came into effect.
Trump suspended tariffs on Mexico and Canada on Monday for a month after they vowed to step up measures to counter flows of the drug fentanyl and crossing of undocumented migrants into the United States.
Stock markets wavered on Tuesday as investors braced for volatile market activity in the coming weeks over Trump’s threatened tariffs on the three biggest US trading partners.
“Let’s see what happens with the call today,” Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro, a veteran of the US president’s first term, told news outlet Politico.
Asked if Trump could halt the tariffs on China too, he added: “It’s up to the boss. I never get ahead of the boss, that’s why I’m sitting here.”
Trump imposed fresh 10 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods, on top of levies that were already in place against America’s biggest economic competitor.
Mexico and Canada had faced 25pc tariffs.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that Trump was due to talk to Xi, but said on Tuesday that “I don’t have any updates on when that call will take place”.
“He is not going to allow China to continue to source and distribute deadly fentanyl into our country, that was the reason for this tariff,” Leavitt told reporters outside the West Wing.
‘Malicious levies’
China unveiled levies of 15pc on imports of coal and liquefied natural gas from the United States, while crude oil, agricultural machinery, big-engined vehicles, and pickup trucks face 10pc duties.
China said it would probe US tech giant Google over violations of anti-monopoly laws.
“As Google is suspected of violating the Anti-Monopoly Law of the People’s Republic of China, the State Administration for Market Regulation has launched an investigation into Google in accordance with the law,” the administration said in a statement.
China said it will also probe the American fashion group which owns Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein.
Beijing said the measures were in response to the “unilateral tariff hike” by Washington. It said it would also file a complaint to the World Trade Organisation over the “malicious” levies.
It also unveiled fresh export controls on rare metals and chemicals including tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, and molybdenum, used in a range of industrial appliances.
“I think the retaliation is not aggressive, as China only targets some US products, in response to the US tariff on all China’s exports to the US,” Zhang Zhiwei of Pinpoint Asset Management said in a note. “This is likely only the beginning of a long process for the two countries to negotiate”
China is a major market for US energy exports and according to Beijing customs data, imports of oil, coal and LNG totaled more than $7 billion last year.
But that is dwarfed by China’s imports from more friendly powers such as Russia, from which it purchased $94 billion-worth last year.
Last-minute deals
Trump has made tariffs a key foreign policy tool of his second term, joking that the word tariff is the “most beautiful” in the dictionary.
The Republican billionaire said his tariffs aimed to punish countries for failing to halt flows of illegal migrants and drugs including the powerful opioid fentanyl into the United States.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had both struck last-minute deals with Trump on Monday to tighten border measures.
Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2025
