China says US must ‘cherish’ its cooperation on fentanyl as Trump vows to add 10% tariff

Beijing’s foreign ministry says fentanyl is US’ own problem and China provided support ‘out of a humanitarian spirit’

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US president-elect Donald Trump says his administration will charge China “an additional 10 per cent tariff, above any additional tariffs, on all of their many products coming into the United States” until it effectively stops fentanyl shipments to the US. Photo” AFP

Published: 8:58pm, 26 Nov 2024Updated: 9:27pm, 26 Nov 2024

China has called on the United States to “cherish” Beijing’s anti-drug cooperation as Donald Trump vowed to impose an additional tariff that he said was in response to fentanyl smuggling.

The US president-elect said on social media on Monday that he would impose new tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada from his first day in office on January 20.

Trump said his administration “will be charging China an additional 10 per cent tariff, above any additional tariffs, on all of their many products coming into the United States” until China effectively stopped fentanyl shipments to the US.

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“Representatives of China told me that they would institute their maximum penalty, that of death, for any drug dealers caught doing this but, unfortunately, they never followed through, and drugs are pouring into our country,” Trump said on his Truth Social site.

China’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that fentanyl was the US’ own problem and that China, which it said was one of the countries with the strictest and most thorough drug control policies in the world, had provided support “out of a humanitarian spirit”.

“China has carried out with the American side extensive and in-depth anti-drug cooperation and … achieved remarkable results, which is evident,” it said.

“China is willing to continue anti-drug cooperation with the United States on the basis of equality, mutual benefit and mutual respect. The United States should cherish the goodwill of the Chinese side and maintain the hard-won good situation of anti-drug cooperation between China and the United States.”