In a move that could hit big economies, President Donald Trump said that countries doing business with Iran will be subject to a 25% tariff on imports, effective immediately.
The announcement comes a day after Trump said that he was considering military operations in Iran and warned the Islamic Republic was starting to cross his threshold for intervention as the death toll from an intensifying crackdown on nationwide protests rises.
The warning comes a little more than a week after the US launched strikes on Caracas and captured Venezuelan strongman leader Nicolás Maduro, an audacious move that served as a reminder of Trump’s willingness to use American military power to achieve his foreign policy goals.
However, data shows that more than 100 countries have traded with Iran on some level in the first half of 2025 and could be affected.
China, Turkey, Pakistan and India were among Iran’s largest trading partners, the data showed.
The threat of 25% tariffs has raised the risk of derailing the US’s fragile trade deal with China, Iran’s largest trading partner.
In response to Trump’s tariff threat, China said it “firmly opposes any illicit unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction,” while warning that it would take “all necessary measures” to defend its interests, according to a post on X by a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the U.S.
A move towards an increase could be a massive escalation from current tariff levels, easily spiraling into fresh rounds of tit-for-tat escalation, not to mention dashing hopes of US soybean exports to China.

