Trump threatens tariffs on China over ‘hostile’ rare earths policy

By Brett Rowland
The Center Square

President Donald Trump threatened a “massive increase” in tariffs on products from China after Beijing tightened export controls on rare earth minerals critical to advanced manufacturing.

Trump’s trade team has been working on a broader trade deal with China for months, but the U.S. president said Friday he is considering canceling an upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping over the export restrictions.

U.S. markets tumbled on the news, with all three major indexes in the red by midday Friday.

Trump lashed out in a lengthy Truth Social post. He said Chinese officials “are becoming very hostile, and sending letters to Countries throughout the World, that they want to impose Export Controls on each and every element of production having to do with Rare Earths, and virtually anything else they can think of, even if it’s not manufactured in China.”

China announced Wednesday that foreign entities must get a license to export products containing trace amounts of rare earths found in China or made using China’s extraction process. Rare earths are essential minerals in many products, including cars, semiconductors, electronics and advanced military equipment.

Trump said China’s restrictions on rare earth exports would be painful for the U.S. and the rest of the world.

“Nobody has ever seen anything like this but, essentially, it would ‘clog’ the Markets, and make life difficult for virtually every Country in the World, especially for China,” Trump said. “We have been contacted by other Countries who are extremely angry at this great Trade hostility, which came out of nowhere.”

Trump said the export restrictions were a surprise after months of better relations with Beijing since reaching a tariff truce in May. Trump said he was concerned about just such a move.

“I have always felt that they’ve been lying in wait, and now, as usual, I have been proven right! There is no way that China should be allowed to hold the World ‘captive,’ but that seems to have been their plan for quite some time, starting with the ‘Magnets’ and, other Elements that they have quietly amassed into somewhat of a Monopoly position, a rather sinister and hostile move, to say the least,” Trump said.

China recently opened a monopoly investigation into Qualcomm, a U.S. tech company, that could affect its acquisition of another company. China has also said it will charge new port fees to ships with ties to the U.S., including those owned or operated by U.S. companies.

The U.S. president said he plans to respond with export restrictions and tariffs.

“Dependent on what China says about the hostile ‘order’ that they have just put out, I will be forced, as President of the United States of America, to financially counter their move. For every Element that they have been able to monopolize, we have two,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I never thought it would come to this but perhaps, as with all things, the time has come. Ultimately, though potentially painful, it will be a very good thing, in the end, for the U.S.A. One of the Policies that we are calculating at this moment is a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States of America.”

Trump also said he was considering canceling a planned meeting with Xi Jinping.

“I have not spoken to President Xi because there was no reason to do so. This was a real surprise, not only to me, but to all the Leaders of the Free World. I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so,” Trump said.

Earlier this year, trade between the U.S. and China – the world’s two largest economies – came to a standstill after each country hit the other with tariffs above 100%. In May, the two nations reached a 90-day deal to continue talks. At the time, the U.S. said it would reduce its tariffs on China from 145% to 30% while the two nations continued to talk. China said it would cut its levies on U.S. imports from 125% to 10%, according to a joint statement from the two nations. That truce was briefly disrupted in June over concerns about rare earth exports, but Trump later said the deal was back on track.

The U.S. goods trade deficit with China was $295.4 billion in 2024, the largest with any trading partner, according to the White House.