President Donald Trump has moved to cut U.S. fentanyl-related tariffs on Chinese goods in half, following last month’s in-person meeting with China’s leader Xi Jinping in South Korea.
Under a new executive order issued on Tuesday, the tariff will drop from 20 percent to 10 percent beginning November 10.
In the order, Trump stated:
“The PRC [People’s Republic of China] has committed to take significant measures to end the flow of fentanyl to the United States, including stopping the shipment of certain designated chemicals to North America and strictly controlling exports of certain other chemicals to all destinations in the world.”
Trump and Xi met on October 30 on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Busan, South Korea.
After the meeting, Trump said he believed Beijing would take “strong action” to stem the supply of precursor chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl.