Last week I reported that President Trump said he will impose an additional 100% tariff on imports from China, as well as impose export controls on “any and all critical software” starting Nov 1st, in retaliation of China's new export restrictions. Trump also indicated that he would not be meeting with Chinese President Xi later this month as originally planned because “there seems to be no reason” for the meeting to take place under current positions.
Here's what's happened since last Monday:
- Trump told FOX Business' Maria Bartiromo that the new tariffs are “not sustainable” but that China “forced me to do that.”
- He went on to say, “I've always had a great relationship with them, as you know, but they're always looking for an edge,” adding that China has “ripped off our country for years.”
- Trump also confirmed that his meeting with President Xi in South Korea is back on in a few weeks.
- In the meantime, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Friday he plans to meet this week with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Malaysia to try to de-escalate the trade war.
- The head of the World Trade Organization called on the U.S. and China to ease their trade tensions, warning that a full economic decoupling between the two nations could shrink global output by as much as 7% over time.
- More Chinese manufacturers have thrown in the towel on the U.S. market over its instability. Cherry Yuan, a sales manager at a manufacturer of mosquito trapping equipment, said, “The situation's too unstable. Trump's like a child – crying one minute, laughing the next. You can't play along with that.”
- Cai Jing, who runs a travel mug company, said, “Sales to the U.S. have dropped by a lot, by around half. It's not that we're giving up on the U.S. market. It's that U.S. buyers gave up on us.”
- A report released today shows that China's economy expanded at the slowest annual pace in a year during Q3 2025, growing 4.8%, compared to 5.2% in the previous quarter.
So it seems that we likely won't be seeing 100% additional tariffs on Chinese goods, and that the threat may have simply been a bargaining chip by Trump before meeting with Xi for further negotiations.
In the meantime, U.S. businesses are once again left in limbo, uncertain about what to expect with tariffs in the coming weeks.