Beijing: China announced new export restrictions on 13 chemicals used to produce fentanyl and other synthetic drugs on Monday, marking a major step in its pledge to curb the flow of drug-making substances abroad.

The move follows recent discussions between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump, where the two leaders agreed to take steps toward easing trade tensions and addressing America’s ongoing fentanyl crisis. After the talks in South Korea last month, Trump said China would assist in ending the crisis, prompting Washington to reduce a related tariff from 20% to 10%.

The announcement reflects a renewed phase of cooperation between Beijing and Washington, whose counternarcotics collaboration has fluctuated over the years. China, a leading exporter of pharmaceutical ingredients, has often been under US scrutiny for its role in the global fentanyl supply chain.

In 2019, during Trump’s first term, China imposed sweeping restrictions on fentanyl and related substances at Washington’s request. However, cooperation weakened amid rising tensions over human rights issues, and Beijing formally suspended counternarcotics efforts in 2022.

In 2023, the US designated China as a “major illicit drug-producing country.” Subsequent diplomatic engagement between then-President Joe Biden and Xi Jinping in California led to renewed cooperation and fresh curbs on synthetic opioids and precursor chemicals. Additional restrictions followed in September 2024.

After returning to office, Trump reimposed tariffs on China, accusing it of failing to prevent the export of fentanyl precursors. Beijing retaliated with its own tariffs and again slowed cooperation.

“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.

The presidential statement reads, “For too long, (China) has enabled illicit fentanyl production in Mexico and elsewhere by subsidising 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.”