Economy

During the Biden administration, Donald J. Trump would sit in his mirrored and gold-trimmed salon at Mar-a-Lago where he had once hosted China’s leader, Xi Jinping, brooding to visitors about the outcome of the trade agreement he signed with China in 2020.Mr. Trump would castigate “stupid people” in the White House for failing to honor “my trade agreement,” and muse about how, if he won a second term, he could strike the deal of a century with Mr. Xi.Now back in the Oval Office, President Trump is eyeing the possibility of a new trade deal with China.More than half a dozen current and former advisers and others familiar with Mr. Trump’s thinking say that, although there would be significant hurdles to reaching any agreement, the president would like to strike a wide-ranging deal with Mr. Xi, one that goes beyond just reworking the trading relationship.Mr. Trump has expressed interest in a deal that would include substantial investments and commitments from the Chinese to buy more American products (despite China’s failure to buy an additional $200 billion of goods and services under the 2020 agreement). He would like an agreement to also include issues like nuclear weapons security, which he envisions ironing out man to man with Mr. Xi, his advisers say.Mr. Trump is already following a familiar playbook of tariffs and other threats as he looks to negotiate a deal. On Feb. 1, he hit Beijing with 10 percent tariffs on all Chinese imports — what the president called an “opening salvo” — quickly resulting in retaliation from the Chinese. He has also floated the idea of revoking the permanent normal trading relations the United States extended to China more than 20 years ago.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., Feb. 18, 2025. 
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

President Donald Trump said he may broaden the scope of U.S. tariffs on imports to include automobiles, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.
In remarks to reporters Tuesday, Trump said the duties would be around 25% and “go very substantially higher over a course of a year.” The president did not indicate whether the new tariffs would apply to all vehicles coming into the U.S. or be targeted toward certain countries but said they could start as early as April 2.

However, the threat represents a broadening in the administration’s aggressive trade policy that already has included 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports set to take effect in March.
The nations with the biggest auto exports to the U.S. are Mexico, Japan and Canada.
Trump said the tariffs already are having the desired effect, with companies domiciled overseas wanting to come back to the U.S.
On pharmaceuticals, the nation feeling the biggest impact likely would be Japan and India. On semiconductors, Trump did not indicate when they would happen. Those levies would impact Taiwan Semiconductor, which provides chips to companies including Nvidia and Apple. More

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