BEIJING: Beijing accused the United States on Friday (Feb 28) of exerting “tariff pressure and blackmail” after President Donald Trump’s latest threat to slap an extra duty of 10 per cent on imports from China, citing a continued flow of fentanyl into the country.
The fresh China tariffs, in addition to a tariff of 10 per cent levied on Feb 4, coincide with Wednesday’s start of China’s annual parliamentary meet, a setpiece political event at which Beijing is expected to roll out its 2025 economic priorities.
Washington had “used the fentanyl issue to insist on tariff pressure and blackmail”, foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a daily briefing.
“It has created a serious impact, pressure, coercion and threat to the dialogue and cooperation between the two sides in the field of drug control,” Lin said of the tariffs, warning that they would backfire.
“Remarkable results have been achieved,” he added, from China’s anti-drug cooperation with the US, saying China was the world’s first country to officially control fentanyl-like substances.
On Thursday, Trump said his proposed 25 per cent tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods would take effect on Tuesday, along with the extra duty of 10 per cent on Chinese imports.
The announcement leaves Beijing less than a week to publish countermeasures, as Trump’s administration shows signs of a hardening stance towards its strategic rival despite backing down on the threat of tariffs of up to 60 per cent when he took office.
In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused China of waging a “reverse” Opium War over fentanyl, suggesting that Beijing may be “deliberately” flooding America with the synthetic opioid.
He was referring to the two 19th-century Opium Wars China lost to Britain and France, after which it was forced to buy large volumes of the drug and concede parts of its territory to colonial Western powers.
Earlier on Friday, China’s commerce ministry said it had some of the world’s toughest anti-drug policies, and highlighted the risks new tariffs would bring to global supply chains.
US tariff threats are “purely ‘shifting blame and shirking responsibility’, which is not conducive to solving its own problems,” it added.
Analysts say Beijing still hopes to strike a deal with the Trump administration.
But with trade talks not having materialised yet and the White House ramping up signs it is preparing for a wider economic decoupling from China, the prospect of a rapprochement between the world’s top two economies is fading, they added.
“There’s been a lot of motion, but it’s still not clear exactly what the Trump administration’s fundamental goal is with respect to China,” said Christopher Beddor, deputy China research director at Gavekal Dragonomics.
Source: CNA
