Trump: We are considering cutting off some trade relations with China.
“I believe that China is deliberately not buying our soybeans and is causing problems for our soybean farmers, which is a hostile economic action,” US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, as tensions between Washington and Beijing escalated.
The US president added, “We are considering cutting off trade relations with China on edible oil and other trade items in retaliation. For example, we can easily produce our own edible oil, and we don’t need to buy it from China.”
Trump had previously said: “Very strange things are happening in China! They have become very hostile and are sending letters to countries around the world that they want to put export controls on every single element of production related to rare earth products and almost every other product they can think of, even if it is not produced in China.” No one has ever seen anything like it, but it is essentially “blocking” markets and making life difficult for almost every country in the world, especially China.
The US president added that in response to Xi’s actions, he would consider “dramatically increasing” tariffs on Chinese imports, and that “one of the policies that we are currently considering is a dramatic increase in tariffs on Chinese products that come into the United States. Many other countermeasures are also under serious consideration.”
The tariffs imposed by the US and China, and the possibility of further increases, have affected bilateral trade between the two countries. Beijing’s exports to Washington fell 33% in August to $47.3 billion, while its imports from the US fell 16% to $13.4 billion.
Overall, China’s exports grew at their slowest pace since January-February 2025. Even then, the growth rate was only 2.3%.