China to Restrict Chemicals After Deal on Fentanyl Tariffs
Issue Was Key Sticking Point for Trump During Talks With Xi
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WASHINGTON — China said Nov. 10 it is making good on its pledge to crack down on chemicals that can be used to make fentanyl, a key issue for PresidentDonald Trumpduring recent talks with Chinese leaderXi Jinpingas they aimed totake steps to ease a trade war.
Beijing announced new export restrictions on 13 “drug-making” chemicals to the United States, Canada and Mexico, including those that are used to produce the synthetic opioid blamed for tens of thousands ofoverdose deaths in the U.S.every year. Aftermeeting Xi in South Korealast month, Trump said China would help end the fentanyl crisis and he would ease a related tariff from 20% to 10%.
It shows the back-and-forth nature ofU.S.-Chinese cooperation on fentanylover the years and lessens the recent tensions after Trump launched hiscampaign of tariffs, including those against the country that is the top exporter of pharmaceutical ingredients, such as the chemicals used to make fentanyl.
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“What the Trump administration has essentially agreed with Beijing is for Beijing to restart what it had been doing during the second part of 2024,” said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow focusing on the opioid crisis at the Brookings Institution.
Cooperation on fentanyl has long been a sticking point in relations between Beijing and Washington.
Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. The U.S.'s fight against fentanyl goes back many years. (Bonnie Cash/UPI, Oliver Bunic/Bloomberg)
In 2019, during Trump's first term, Beijing took a huge step by restricting fentanyl and related substances at the request of the U.S. president. When tensions rose between Beijing and Washington over human rights issues, China started to stall counter-narcotics cooperation in 2020 before making it formal two years later.
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The U.S. in 2023 listed China as a “major illicit drug-producing country" before then-President Joe Biden met Xi in California to secure Beijing's agreement to cooperate.
Shortly afterward, Beijing restricted more substances, including another synthetic opioid and chemicals that are added to fentanyl. Other key fentanyl precursors were curtailed in September 2024.
After Trump took office, he slapped two 10% tariffs on China, accusing it of failing to stem the flow of chemicals. Beijing responded with its own tariffs and pausing cooperation on fentanyl.
“The Trump administration made the big error in completely discounting and ignoring what China was doing with the U.S. in 2024 and just coming in with guns blazing” on tariffs, Felbab-Brown said.
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That, she said, has allowed Beijing to bargain to resume measures that were already on the table in the second half of 2024 and “get double points."
The White House did not respond to a request for comment Nov. 10 on China's new export restrictions.
Also Nov. 10, Beijing signaled tougher enforcement with a public notice by the China National Narcotics Control Commission urging businesses to comply with tax codes, customs rules, internet laws and foreign currency regulations.
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The chemicals newly restricted by Beijing can still be exported without a license to other countries besides the three in North America that were named in the Chinese Commerce Ministry announcement. Fentanyl is mostly manufactured in Mexico.
The challenge remains that the “very basic chemicals” with widespread, legitimate uses in chemistry, agriculture and the pharmaceutical industry are increasingly tapped to make synthetic opioids, Felbab-Brown said.
In September, Trump continued to list China as a “major illicit drug-producing country."
“For too long, [China] has enabled illicit fentanyl production in Mexico and elsewhere by subsidizing the export of the precursor chemicals needed to produce these deadly drugs and failing to prevent Chinese companies from selling these precursors to known criminal cartels,” the presidential statement said.
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