Daijiworld Media Network - New York
New York, Aug 12: US President Donald Trump has prolonged the tariff moratorium on China for an additional 90 days, pushing the new deadline to November 10. The extension was announced by Trump on his social media platform, Truth Social, just hours before the previous moratorium was set to expire.
Under the extended agreement, the US will maintain a 30% tariff rate on Chinese goods, while China's tariff on US goods will remain at 10%. Trump stated that the two nations "have been dealing very nicely" and that his relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping is "very good." This extension comes after a third round of trade talks in Sweden last month failed to produce a satisfactory deal.
The move marks a continuation of a truce that began after a period of intense trade conflict. In April, tariffs had escalated to 145% by the US and 125% by China, with Beijing also imposing a ban on the export of rare earths critical to American manufacturing. The subsequent 90-day truce saw a reduction in tariffs and the resumption of some rare earth exports.
Trump's administration is also considering a 25% tariff on countries, including India, that buy Russian oil, a measure that has not yet been applied to China. While Vice President J.D. Vance mentioned that such a penalty was "on the table," no final decision has been made. Meanwhile, a similar tariff threat against all buyers of Russian energy, if Moscow did not make peace with Ukraine, also passed without action.
The extension of the tariff truce is part of the administration's broader effort to address the significant trade deficit with China, which was $295 billion last year. Trump has suggested that China could help by quadrupling its purchases of US soybeans. The negotiations also highlight the strategic importance of rare earths, where China holds a near-monopoly, and advanced semiconductors, an area of US dominance. Trump has proposed an unusual arrangement allowing US companies to sell certain advanced chips to China, provided they pay 15% of the profits from those sales to the US government.