International Trade
Bloomberg | Top Story | August 27, 2019
America’s opioid crisis is sparking a political battle over the flow of illicit Chinese exports of the drug fentanyl to U.S. shores.
Washington has attacked Beijing for not doing enough to curb the flow of fentanyl, a highly addictive painkiller that’s played a role in the opioid epidemic blamed for thousands of deaths in the U.S. President Donald Trump has linked the issue to trade war talks, citing President Xi Jinping’s failure to halt the shipments as a reason for slapping more tariffs on Chinese exports next month.
China has repeatedly pushed back, arguing that the epidemic is due to the U.S.’s own lax regulation over the prescription of addictive opioids to patients. China’s narcotics regulator, Liu Yuejin, last week rebutted accusations that the country isn’t doing enough to curb the flow of fentanyl, and said the U.S. is politicizing the issue and using it as a weapon against China.
