Trump says tariffs on Chinese imports will double to 20% and go into effect next week

US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that the US would not only impose his originally outlined 10 per cent tariffs on all Chinese imports beginning on Tuesday, but that these were now being doubled for an effective rate of 20 per cent.

The move, targeting billions of US dollars in bilateral trade, represented a significant raising of the stakes in the economic showdown with China and arrived in characteristic fashion for the mercurial president: by way of a social media posting, justified on the basis of China’s role in the fentanyl drug trade.

“A large percentage of these Drugs, much of them in the form of Fentanyl, are made in, and supplied by, China,” Trump declared on his Truth Social account.

“Until it stops, or is seriously limited, the proposed TARIFFS scheduled to go into effect on MARCH FOURTH will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled.

“China will likewise be charged an additional 10% Tariff on that date,” he added.

His declaration also involved tariffs of 25 per cent on all imports from Mexico and Canada, which he said were not doing enough to stop trafficking across their borders with the US. Those tariffs are also to go into effect on Tuesday.

The president added that Washington would levy reciprocal tariffs on all nations the US trades with, effective April 2.