This Sunday, October 12, China accused the United States of having “double standards”, following the announcement by US President Donald Trump of the imposition of 100% additional customs duties on Chinese goods.
“The US statement in question is a typical example of ‘double standards’,” said a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Commerce. in a statement.
The Chinese cabinet also considered that Washington’s actions “seriously harm China’s interests and undermine (…) the climate of economic and commercial discussions between the two parties”.
“Constantly threatening high customs duties is not the right approach to cooperating with China,” he added.
Donald Trump said he was reacting to an “extraordinarily aggressive commercial stance” adopted by the world’s second largest economic power, which decided to further regulate exports of technologies related to rare earthsa particularly strategic sector.
These new customs duties, “in addition to any tariffs they are currently paying”, should be applied from November 1st “or before”, said the North American official.
The Asian giant is the world’s largest producer of rare earths, essential materials for industry, and Washington has already accused it of abusing this dominant position.
The new controls, announced on Thursday by Beijing, concern the export of technologies related to the extraction and production of these materials, according to the ministry.
A “real surprise” for Donald Trumpwho considered on Friday that he no longer had any reason to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the end of October at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, a meeting that he himself had announced in September.