U.S. President Donald Trump points a finger as he speaks during a roundtable on “Antifa,” an anti-fascist movement he designated a domestic “terrorist organization” via executive order on September 22, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., Oct. 8, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
President Donald Trump on Friday said the United States would impose new tariffs of 100% on imports from China “over and above any Tariff that they are currently paying,” starting on Nov. 1.
Trump also said that the U.S., on that same date, would also impose export controls on “any and all critical software.”
The president’s announcement came hours after he threatened to slap “a massive increase” of tariffs on Chinese imports in retaliation for new controls that China imposed on exports of rare earths minerals from that nation.
Around 70% of the global supply of rare earths minerals comes from China. The minerals are essential for high-tech industries, including automobiles, defense and semiconductors.
Trump suggested earlier Friday that he would cancel a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea because of China’s new controls.
Nearly every product imported into the U.S. from China already faces steep tariffs. While there are different levels of specific duties on imports, ranging from 50% on steel and aluminum, to 7.5% on consumer goods, the so-called effective tariff rate on Chinese imports currently is 40%, according to Wells Fargo Economics and analysts at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
“It has just been learned that China has taken an extraordinarily aggressive position on Trade in sending an extremely hostile letter to the World, stating that they were going to, effective November 1st, 2025, impose large scale Export Controls on virtually every product they make, and some not even made by them,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Friday.
“This affects ALL Countries, without exception, and was obviously a plan devised by them years ago. It is absolutely unheard of in International Trade, and a moral disgrace in dealing with other Nations,” Trump wrote.
“Based on the fact that China has taken this unprecedented position, and speaking only for the U.S.A., and not other Nations who were similarly threatened, starting November 1st, 2025 (or sooner, depending on any further actions or changes taken by China), the United States of America will impose a Tariff of 100% on China, over and above any Tariff that they are currently paying,” he wrote.
“Also on November 1st, we will impose Export Controls on any and all critical software.”
China’s Ministry of Commerce on Thursday said that starting Dec. 1 foreign entities must have a license to export products that contain more than 0.1% of rare earths sourced from that country, or that are manufactured using Chinese extraction, refining, magnet-making or recycling technology.
