The US And China Trade Opening Barbs

On February 1, 2025, the Trump Administration announced that it would impose tariffs on imports of certain goods from Canada, Mexico and China, to be effective February 4, 2025. Although the Trump Administration reached agreements with Canada and Mexico to forestall the onset of tariffs for 30 days, it has not reached a similar agreement with China. Accordingly, a 10 percent tariff on all imports of Chinese goods went into effect at 12:01 a.m. on February 4, 2025.

In response, China instituted a series of restrictive trade measures and, in so doing, flexed the retaliatory legal muscles it has worked to develop since US-China trade tensions began during the first Trump Administration. In addition to tariffs on imports from the United States, China initiated antitrust investigations into US companies, imposed export controls on exports of critical minerals and added two US companies to its so-called Unreliable Entity List.