WASHINGTON ‒ President Donald Trump said the United States will add an additional 100% tariff on all Chinese imports in retaliation to new export controls Beijing is planning for valuable rare earth minerals.

The move reignites a trade war between the world's two largest economies after the United States and China had for months maintained a truce that has kept tariffs on each other flat.

Trump said the new tariff would go into effect on Nov. 1, adding that his administration will also impose its own export controls on "any and all critical software," effective the same date.

"It is impossible to believe that China would have taken such an action, but they have, and the rest is History," Trump said in an Oct. 10 post on Truth Social.

The 100% tariff would add to 30% duties the United States is currently imposing on goods from China, meaning Chinese imports would have a total tariff rate of 130%.

China, the world's largest producer of rare earths, on Oct. 9 announced it would be expanding its curbs on exports to five additional elements and adding dozens of pieces of refining technology to its export control list. Beijing also announced new rules requiring compliance from foreign producers of rare earths that use Chinese materials.

Trump later suggested he could roll back the tariffs if China scraps its export controls. "We're going to have to see what happens," Trump told reporters. "That's why I made it Nov. 1."

Rare earth minerals are vital to build microchips and semiconductors, which are used in artificial technology and electronics.

Trump threatened the massive tariffs earlier in the day ‒ sending the U.S. stock market tumbling ‒ following what he described as an "extraordinarily aggressive position on Trade" from the Chinese.

Trump said countries throughout the world have received letters from China detailing its plans to impose export controls on "each and every element of production having to do with Rare Earths, and virtually anything else they can think of, even if it’s not manufactured in China." He called it "a rather sinister and hostile move, to say the least," given the "monopoly" on rare earths that China has amassed.

"This affects ALL Countries, without exception, and was obviously a plan devised by them years ago. It is absolutely unheard of in International Trade, and a moral disgrace in dealing with other Nations," Trump said.

Trump has imposed sweeping tariffs on imports from countries across the world in his second term. China was initially targeted with the steepest tariffs, but the Trump administration and China in August agreed for the second time to extend a tariff truce for 90 days, staving off triple-digit duties on imports that both countries have threatened on the other.

Trump signed an order preventing U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods from shooting up to 145%, while Chinese tariffs on U.S. goods were set to hit 125% − rates that would have resulted in a virtual trade embargo between the two countries. The truce locked in place a 30% tariff on Chinese imports, with Chinese duties on U.S. imports at 10%.

In his initial social media post, Trump also threatened to back out of plans to meet later this month with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea. "I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so," he wrote.

Trump accused China of "great Trade hostility" by planning sweeping rare-earth export controls. He said the move "came out of nowhere," even though China and his administration have clashed over trade policy during much of Trump's second term.

"Our relationship with China over the past six months has been a very good one, thereby making this move on Trade an even more surprising one," Trump wrote. "I have always felt that they’ve been lying in wait, and now, as usual, I have been proven right!"

Contributing: Reuters

Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump announces additional 100% tariff on China imports, reigniting trade war with Beijing

Reporting by Joey Garrison, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect