Trump threatens China with 200% customs duties if he does not export his magnets from rare lands
Donald Trump. Photo: Somodevilla face / Getty Images / Profimedia
US President Donald Trump threatened China on Monday to impose 200% rates for Chinese products entering the United States, if Beijing does not accelerate its rare land exports, AFP reports.
“It has to give us magnets. If they do not give us, then we will impose customs taxes of about 200%. But I think we will have no problems with it,” said the US president, in the presence of his South Korean counterpart Lee Jae Myung, during a press with the press in the Oval Office.
China is the main world producer of rare lands, which in particular allow the manufacture of magnets essential for the automotive, electronic or even weapons.
However, at the beginning of April, the Chinese partid state imposed a license for the export of these strategic materials, a decision seen as a measure of reprisals against American tariffs.
Beijin and Washington then started a commercial war in full, each responding to the other rates, reaching 125% and 145% on each side.
Since then, negotiations between the two world powers have contributed to the mitigation of tensions, and the Chinese government has committed to accelerate the issuance of licenses for a certain number of American companies.
