(Bloomberg) -- On Feb. 4, President Donald Trump’s executive order imposing an across-the-board 10% tariff on all US imports from China went into effect. A month later, he doubled it to 20%.
On both occasions, the Trump administration suggested the tariffs were a way of holding China accountable for its alleged failure to curb the export of fentanyl and its precursor chemicals, which have contributed to the US opioid crisis.
The comprehensive import tax comes on top of tariffs already in place on certain Chinese goods and sectors that were imposed by Trump during his first presidency and expanded by his successor, Joe Biden.
On March 10, China retaliated to the heightened tariffs by imposing levies ranging from 10% to 15% on a selection of American agricultural products. The move appeared designed to signal China’s resolve without a significant blow-back on its own economy.
Why has Trump increased tariffs on imports from China?
The Trump administration argues that increased tariffs will give the US leverage to pressure China’s government to crack down on the export of fentanyl and the chemicals used to make it.
Trump’s February executive order accused the ruling Communist Party of “actively sustaining and expanding the business of poisoning our citizens.” It stated that the party has “subsidized and otherwise incentivized PRC [People’s Republic of China] chemical companies to export fentanyl and related precursor chemicals that are used to produce synthetic opioids sold illicitly in the United States.” It also accused the Chinese government of providing a “safe haven” for transnational criminal organizations laundering the proceeds of fentanyl sales.
Trump has previously accused China’s leaders of failing to uphold past commitments to fight the drug trade. In late 2023, he posted on his social media platform Truth Social that Chinese President Xi Jinping had backtracked on what Trump claimed was a promise in 2018 to impose the death penalty on drug dealers.
How has China responded to Trump’s accusations regarding fentanyl?
In a March 12 briefing, an official from China’s Foreign Ministry claimed Beijing had forcefully cracked down on the fentanyl trade and said Washington should have offered a “big thank you” instead of slapping levies on Chinese imports. He also called on the Trump administration to keep dialogue open on trade and expressed willingness to continue working with the US.
In February, Lin Jian, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, accused the US of disregarding the country’s “fruitful cooperation” to combat the problem of illicit fentanyl. Authorities declined to make new commitments to stemming the flow of the drug. “The US needs to view and solve its own fentanyl issue in an objective and rational way instead of threatening other countries with arbitrary tariff hikes,” the Foreign Ministry said in a separate statement. China’s medicine regulator has also said it would keep strengthening supervision of fentanyl production and sales, reiterating that the country has never exported fentanyl drugs to North American nations.
Why is Trump focused on fentanyl?
Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid painkiller used to treat pain related to surgery or other complex conditions. It can be produced through relatively inexpensive means and distributed illegally. Illicit fentanyl has contributed to a rise in overdose deaths in the US over the past decade. Support for tackling the problem exists across party lines in the US.
What’s China’s role in the fentanyl trade?
According to a 2021 report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, China, which has a large chemical industry, remains “the primary country of origin for illicit fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked into the United States.” However, the nature of China’s role in the fentanyl supply train has shifted. The US Drug Enforcement Administration reports that, since 2019, Chinese traffickers have largely shifted from manufacturing finished fentanyl to instead mostly exporting precursor chemicals to Mexican cartels, which make and deliver the finished product.
What has China done to curb the fentanyl trade?
In 2018, China vowed to tighten supervision and revise rules around fentanyl production after Trump and Xi met at the Group of 20 summit in Argentina. Its leadership allowed US law enforcement authorities to take a bigger role in investigating smuggling rings within the country.
Following through on its promises, China in 2019 closed a loophole that had hindered efforts to crack down on the laboratories that had made the country the world’s largest exporter of fentanyl. That year, China also sentenced three Chinese nationals to maximum punishments for smuggling fentanyl to the US, giving one a suspended death sentence and the other two life sentences.
But bilateral cooperation stalled when US-Chinese relations were strained over disagreements related to Taiwan and the Covid-19 pandemic. In August 2022, China officially announced that it had suspended all counternarcotics and law enforcement cooperation with the US. Cooperation was restored late in Joe Biden’s presidency.
However, even that cooperation has had limits — since 2019 Chinese officials have not notified the US of any convictions related to the fentanyl trade, according to a US embassy official who asked not to be named discussing non-public matters.
What more does the US want China to do about fentanyl?
The US wants China to step up domestic enforcement of its regulations, take more concrete actions against Chinese drug smugglers and money launderers, and increase regulatory oversight of precursor chemicals.
The Trump administration argues that authorities in China are capable of reining in the crisis. China “implements the most sophisticated domestic surveillance network coupled with the most comprehensive domestic law enforcement apparatus in the world,” Trump’s order said. The Communist Party “does not lack the capacity to severely blunt the global illicit opioid epidemic; it simply is unwilling to do so.”
--With assistance from Daniel Flatley and Philip Glamann.
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