The US president’s hefty tariffs have led to an effective trade embargo between the world’s two largest economies. Taipei, Taiwan— When United States President Donald Trump started his first term in 2017, he started imposing Washington’s most hawkish economic policy towards China in decades.
Trump, in his first 100 days in office of his second term, has driven Washington’s rivalry with Beijing to even loftier heights yet, presenting an ardently protectionist trade policy agenda that has caused a de facto trade embargo on the two world’s largest economies.
US tariffs on nearly all Chinese imports have increased to 145 percent—with the tariff going up to 245 percent on a few—and loopholes that enabled Chinese exporters to skirt existing tariffs have been sealed. China has retaliated by slapping tariffs of 125 percent on the majority of US products, as well as other retaliations like export curbs on essential minerals and further restrictions on how many Hollywood films are screened in Chinese theaters.
Trump’s trade war takes off where he ended during his initial tenure of office, premised on an entrenched view that China and others have exploited the relationship they enjoy in terms of trade with America.
It’s more or less a continuation in terms of direction and objectives, perhaps with greater force and greater determination. He has been treating China as an enemy and not a friend,” said Zhiwu Chen, a professor of finance at the University of Hong Kong, to Al Jazeera.
The US goods and services trade deficit was $918.4 billion in 2024, with the goods trade deficit reaching a record $1.2 trillion, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported. In Trump’s universe, China, the US’s third-largest trade partner behind Mexico and Canada, is one of the worst offenders.
“Trump is of the view that China has gotten a free ride in the period of globalization and taken advantage of the US consumer,” Dennis Wilder, a retired White House official and senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Initiative for US-China Dialogue on Global Issues, said to Al Jazeera.
“He wants to balance trade to make good jobs for Americans, and he will pursue Chinese investment in the US to make good blue-collar jobs. He wants US companies to have much more capacity to sell in China.”
