GYEONGJU, South Korea — President Trump announced Wednesday that he plans to lower his 20% tariff on China over fentanyl exports that killed about 330,000 Americans over the past five years — predicting that Chinese President Xi Jinping will make a “big step” when they meet Thursday.
Trump also hinted he’s reconsidering a threatened 100% additional tariff on Chinese goods, which would have taken effect on Nov. 1 in protest of Beijing’s new export restrictions on products made with rare-earth and critical minerals.
“I expect to be lowering them because I believe that they can help us with the fentanyl situation. They’re going to be doing what they can do,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he traveled to South Korea.
“We’re doing very well with rare earth, as you know, and we’re, I think, going to make a big step with fentanyl.”
Trump was heading to South Korea to participate in Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings ahead of his Xi summit. On his way there, Air Force One got a stunning view of Mount Fuji — Japan’s tallest peak, according to footage posted to X by the president’s communications adviser, Margo Martin.
Air Force One was then escorted into South Korea by two US and two Korean F-16s, a separate video from Martin showed.
Trump on Wednesday did not specify what exactly China might do to curb fentanyl shipments. He is considering reducing the fentanyl tariff that he imposed in February from 20% to 10%, officials leaked to the Wall Street Journal.
Trump added “I think we’re going to have a great meeting with President Xi of China, and a lot of problems are going to be solved,” citing talks between US and Chinese negotiators in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ahead of the summit in South Korea.
“We have been talking to them, we’re not just walking into a meeting cold,” the president said.
Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid that’s often mixed into other drugs or counterfeit prescriptions. It can kill in extremely low doses and has disproportionately stricken younger Americans.
Xi previously committed to Trump during his first term that he would crack down on fentanyl by imposing the death penalty on exporters — but exports instead skyrocketed at the end of 2020 as the US-China relationship crumbled during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The drug killed approximately one in every 1,000 Americans in the five-year period ending in April, the most recent month for which Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data are available.
Xi again committed to halt the flow of fentanyl at a summit with then-President Joe Biden in November 2023.
Since the Biden meeting, overdose deaths have dropped — with roughly 44,000 Americans dead between March 2024 and April 2025, down from 68,000 in the prior 12-month period — though there’s debate about whether that’s the result of fewer susceptible victims given the high prior body count.
Fentanyl and its precursor chemicals are mostly sourced from China and then smuggled into the US either through the international mail and shipping systems or over the border.
Trump told The Post last Thursday that “the first question I’m going to be asking [Xi] about is fentanyl.”
“They make $100 million selling fentanyl into our country — $100 million. They lose $100 billion with the 20% tariff,” he said. “So it’s not a good business proposition.”
China has rejected blame for the fentanyl crisis in the US, with the country’s foreign ministry saying in February, when Trump imposed the tariffs: “Fentanyl is America’s problem. The Chinese side has carried out extensive anti-narcotics cooperation with the United States and achieved remarkable results.”
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