US President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday disclosed further details about its agreement with China on the control of fentanyl precursors, key ingredients in the production of the drug that kills tens of thousands of Americans each year.
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel said in a regular White House briefing that China has agreed to control seven chemical subsidiaries that are used to produce the lethal drug, after Beijing’s export control decision announced on Monday, which targeted more than a dozen fentanyl precursors.
“The Chinese government agreed on a plan to stop fentanyl precursors,” Patel said of his trip to China last week.
“These substances are now banned, and they will no longer be utilised by the Mexican drug trafficking organisations or any other [drug trafficking organisations] around the world to make this drug,” the FBI director said.
“Essentially, President Trump has shut off the pipeline that creates fentanyl that kills tens of thousands of Americans.”
Patel arrived in Beijing on November 7 and stayed for about a day, Reuters reported last week.
This was the first time an FBI director has been to China in over a decade, where Patel met his Chinese counterpart to address this matter directly.
The China visit came after a deal between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Trump during their meeting in South Korea at the end of October, part of a comprehensive bilateral agreement for a trade truce.
Chinese leaders have pledged to work “very hard to stop the flow” of fentanyl, Trump told reporters on his flight back to the United States after the summit.
In exchange for China’s actions, Washington last week halved US tariffs from 20 per cent to 10 per cent on Chinese goods linked to the fentanyl crisis.
The synthetic opioid claimed an estimated 48,422 American lives last year, compared with 76,282 in 2023, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. It has been one of the key issues troubling bilateral relations.
On Monday, China’s Ministry of Commerce announced that the nation would make adjustments to the catalogue of drug-related precursor chemicals and require licences for the export of certain chemicals to the US, Canada and Mexico.
Effective from then, a permit is required for exports of 13 chemicals that could be used to make fentanyl to the three North American countries.
China’s National Narcotics Control Commission also issued a circular on the same day, asking exporters to take action to prevent the outflow of drugmaking materials and equipment.
“Relevant organizations and individuals ... must pay close attention to international conventions as well as laws and regulations of importing countries, especially high-risk countries such as the United States, Canada, and Mexico,” it read.
“To prevent legal risks, they should also require overseas customers to fulfil import legal procedures in accordance with their own national laws and regulations.” -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
