Trump threatens tech export limits, new 100% tariff on Chinese imports
starting Nov. 1 or sooner
[October 11, 2025] By
JOSH BOAK and DIDI TANG
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to place
an additional 100% tax on Chinese imports starting on Nov. 1 or sooner,
potentially escalating tariff rates close to levels that in April fanned
fears of a global recession.
The president expressed frustration with new export controls placed on
rare earth elements by China — and said on social media that “there
seems to be no reason” to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as part of
an upcoming trip to South Korea.
Trump later told reporters he had not canceled his meeting. “But I don't
know that we're going to have it,” he said during an Oval Office
appearance on another subject. “I'm going to be there regardless, so I
would assume we might have it.”
Trump also suggested there may be time to ratchet down his steep new
tariff threat. “We’re going to have to see what happens. That’s why I
made it Nov. 1,” he said.
China’s new restrictions
On Thursday, the Chinese government restricted access to rare earth
minerals, requiring foreign companies to get special approval for
shipping the metallic elements abroad. It also announced permitting
requirements on exports of technologies used in the mining, smelting and
recycling of rare earths, adding that any export requests for products
used in military goods would be rejected.
On social media, Trump described the export controls as “shocking” and
“out of the blue.” He said China is “becoming very hostile” and that
it’s holding the world “captive” by restricting access to the metals and
magnets used in electronics, computer chips, lasers, jet engines and
other technologies.
Trump said in a post that “starting November 1st, 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.” The president also said the
U.S. government would respond to China by putting its own export
controls “on any and all critical software” from American firms.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to an
Associated Press request for comment.
Trump is known for using threats as a tactic
The S&P 500 tumbled 2.7% on worries about the rising tensions between
the world’s largest economies. It was the market’s worst day since April
when the president last bandied about import taxes this high. Still, the
stock market closed before the president spelled out the terms of his
threat.
Not only could the global trade war instigated by Trump be rekindled,
but import taxes being heaped on top of the 30% already being levied on
Chinese goods could, by the administration’s past statements, cause
trade to break down between the U.S. and China in ways that could cause
growth worldwide to slump.
While Trump's wording was definitive, he is also famously known for
backing down from threats. Earlier this year, some investors began
engaging in what the Financial Times called the “TACO” trade, which
stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out.”
The prospect of tariffs this large could compound the president's own
political worries, potentially pushing up inflation at a moment when the
job market appears fragile and the drags from a government shutdown are
starting to compound with layoffs of federal workers.
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U.S. President Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with Chinese
President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20
summit in Osaka, western Japan, June 29, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan
Walsh, File)
 The United States and China have
been jostling for advantage in trade talks, after the import taxes
announced earlier this year triggered the trade war. Both countries
agreed to ratchet down tariffs after negotiations in Switzerland and
the United Kingdom, yet tensions remain as China has continued to
restrict America's access to the difficult-to-mine rare earths
needed for a wide array of U.S. technologies.
There is already a backlog of export license applications from
Beijing’s previous round of export controls on rare earth elements,
and the latest announcements “add further complexity to the global
supply chain of rare earth elements,” the European Union Chamber of
Commerce in China said in a statement.
There are other flashpoints in the trade relationship, including
U.S. restrictions on China’s ability to import advanced computer
chips, sales of American-grown soybeans and a series of tit-for-tat
port fees being levied by both countries starting on Tuesday.
Analysts say there’s time to de-escalate
Trump did not formally cancel the meeting with Xi, so much as
indicating that it might not happen as part of a trip at the end of
the month in Asia. The trip was scheduled to include a stop in
Malaysia, which is hosting the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations summit; a stop in Japan; and a visit to South Korea, where
he was slated to meet with Xi ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation summit.
Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, said
Beijing's move was a reaction to U.S. sanctions of Chinese companies
this week and the upcoming port fees targeting China-related vessels
— but said there’s room for de-escalation to keep the leaders'
meeting alive. “It is a disproportional reaction,” Sun said.
“Beijing feels that de-escalation will have to be mutual as well.
There is room for maneuver, especially on the implementation.”
Gracelin Baskaran, director of the Critical Minerals Security
Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in
Washington, D.C., said China holds leverage because it dominates the
market for rare earths with 70% of the mining and 93% of the
production of permanent magnets made from them, which are crucial to
high-tech products and the military.
“These restrictions undermine our ability to develop our industrial
base at a time when we need to. And then second, it’s a powerful
negotiating tool,” she said.
Craig Singleton, senior director of the China program at the
Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank, said Trump's
post could “mark the beginning of the end of the tariff truce” that
had lowered the tax rates charged by both countries.
“Mutually assured disruption between the two sides is no longer a
metaphor,” Singleton said. “Both sides are reaching for their
economic weapons at the same time, and neither seems willing to back
down.”
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Associated Press writers Stan Choe in New York, Josh Funk in Omaha,
Nebraska, and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this
report.
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