US President Donald Trump on Friday (local time) clarified his recent remarks about having “no reason to meet Xi,” saying that he has not officially cancelled his planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Trump, however, expressed surprise at China’s new export restrictions requiring export licenses for rare earth elements, calling the move “out of the blue.”
“No, I haven’t cancelled. However, I’m not sure if we’ll have it. I’ll be there regardless. I would assume we might have it. However, they hit the world with something. It was shocking. Out of the blue, they came up with this whole import-export concept, and nobody knew anything about it,” he told reporters at the White House.
Earlier, Trump had said that there was “no reason to meet” with Chinese President Xi Jinping after Beijing took “very hostile” steps by imposing sweeping new export controls on rare earth elements. He had also warned that the US was preparing to respond with strong countermeasures.
On being asked about whether the US will revoke the additional tariffs on China if the latter rolls back the restrictions, Trump said, “We’ll have to see what happens. That’s why I made it November 1.”
He added that the US was considering export controls on a range of items beyond software, including aircraft parts. “A lot more. We have aeroplanes and their parts. We were just surprised by China. I have a very good relationship with President Xi, and they did that. This is not something that I instigated. This was just a response to something that they did. And they didn’t really aim it at us. They aimed it at the whole world. I thought it was very, very bad,” he said.
Amid Beijing’s widening curbs on rare earth exports and related technologies, the US President has announced that the US will impose a 100 per cent tariff on Chinese goods “over and above any tariff that they are currently paying,” effective November 1, 2025.
Trump said that export controls will be placed on all critical software starting the same day.
In a post on Truth Social on Friday (local time), the US President said, “Based on the fact that China has taken this unprecedented position, and speaking only for the USA, and not other Nations who were similarly threatened, starting November 1, 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. Also on November 1, we will impose Export Controls on any and all critical software.”
Trump announced this in response to what he described as China taking “an extraordinarily aggressive position on trade” by sending “an extremely hostile letter to the world.”
“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 1, 2025, impose large scale Export Controls on virtually every product they make, and some not even made by them. 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 said.
“It is impossible to believe that China would have taken such an action, but they have, and the rest is History. Thank you for your attention to this matter,” he added.
This comes in response to China’s ramping up of restrictions on rare earth exports, expanding its control list, and extending curbs to cover processing technologies and overseas applications, including those in the military and semiconductor sectors. (ANI)
