WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump signaled on Friday that he could lower sky-high tariffs on Chinese imports, as the rival superpowers prepare for trade talks in Switzerland over the weekend.
"80 per cent Tariff on China seems right!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, which would bring them down from 145 per cent, with cumulative duties on some goods reaching a staggering 245 per cent.
Trump added that it was "Up to Scott B.", referring to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who will confer with China's Vice Premier He Lifeng this weekend in Geneva to try to cool the conflict roiling international markets.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will also attend the trade talks in Switzerland.
In his post, Trump did not say if he thought 80 per cent should be the final, definitive level for tariffs on Chinese goods if and when the trade war ends, or an interim status.
In retaliation to the steep tariffs from Washington, China has slapped 125 per cent levies on US goods.
The cripplingly-high duties amount to an effective trade embargo between the world's two largest economies, with private shipping data already pointing to a sharp slowdown in goods going from China to the United States.
"The relationship is not good," said William Reinsch, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
"We have trade-prohibitive tariffs going in both directions. Relations are deteriorating," said Reinsch, a long-time former member of the American government's US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. "But the meeting is a good sign."
"I think this is basically to show that both sides are talking and that itself is very important," Xu Bin, professor of economics and finance at the China Europe International Business School,said. "Because China is the only country that has tit-for-tat tariffs against Trump's tariffs." — AFP
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