Canada and Mexico got a one-month reprieve, but President Trump’s new 10% tariff on China went into effect Tuesday, prompting retaliation from Beijing.

China announced a 15% levy on coal and liquefied natural gas and a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural equipment and pickup trucks. It also launched an anti-monopoly investigation into Google, a search engine not allowed in China — though the move could disrupt the company’s interaction with Chinese companies.

The retaliatory measures were viewed as relatively modest. Mr. Trump might not be done punishing China and Beijing wants to keep some measures in reserve.

Mr. Trump imposed tariffs on many Chinese goods during his first term, and President Biden kept many of them, so the new tariffs are layered on top of those levies.

Mr. Trump is hitting China with an additional 10% tariff because, he says, it hasn’t done enough to crack down on precursor chemicals that are used to make fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is driving the U.S. overdose crisis.

Canada and Mexico agreed to new border and drug enforcement measures on Monday to avoid 25% tariffs on their goods for one month.

SEE ALSO: Tariffs paused after Canada, Mexico pledge border security boost

China’s foreign ministry, meanwhile, said Tuesday the U.S. should do some self-reflection about its drug problem.

New tariffs “cannot solve the U.S.’s problems at home and more importantly, does not benefit either side, still less the world,” the ministry said. “The U.S. needs to view and solve its own fentanyl issue in an objective and rational way instead of threatening other countries with arbitrary tariff hikes. Additional tariffs are not constructive and bound to affect and harm the counternarcotics cooperation between the two sides in the future.”

China said it had taken steps to rein in fentanyl. It placed finished fentanyl on its schedule of banned substances in 2019, during Mr. Trump’s first term.

But U.S. officials said precursor ingredients continue to flow from China to Mexico, where cartels finish the drug and press it into counterfeit pills, killing unsuspecting Americans.

• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.