Trump floats cutting China tariffs to 80 per cent

Excavators unload coal imported into China, carried by rail cars from shipping ports to a storage facility in Binzhou, in eastern China’s Shandong province. Pic/AFP

US President Donald Trump on Friday floated cutting tariffs on China from 145 per cent to 80 per cent ahead of a weekend meeting among top US and Chinese trade officials as he looks to deescalate the trade war. Top US officials are set to meet with a high-level Chinese delegation in Switzerland in the first major talks between the two nations since Trump sparked a trade war with stiff tariffs on imports.

"80 per cent Tariff on China seems right! Up to Scott B," Trump wrote on his social media account on Friday morning, referring to Scott Bessent, his Treasury chief, who has been a point person on trade. The Republican President also called on China to open its markets to the US, writing: "WOULD BE SO GOOD FOR THEM!!! CLOSED MARKETS DON'T WORK ANYMORE!!!"

Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet with their counterparts in Geneva in the most-senior known conversations between the two countries in months. It comes amid growing US market worry over the impact of the tariffs on the prices and supply of consumer goods.

No country has been hit harder by Trump's trade war than China, the world's biggest exporter and second largest economy. When Trump announced his "Liberation Day" tariffs on April 2, China retaliated with tariffs of its own - a move that Trump viewed as demonstrating a lack of respect. The tariffs on each other's goods have been mounting since then, with the US tariffs against China topping off at 145 per cent and China tariffs on the US at 125 per cent.

Trump had previously said that he wouldn't lower the tariffs against China to hold substantive talks. But he showed signs of softening during an Oval Office appearance on Thursday, , when he said he "could" lower the 145 per cent rate charged on Chinese goods if the weekend talks go well. The president's team, too, has acknowledged that the 145 per cent tariff was not sustainable, as taxes at that rate were effectively an embargo on any trade between the two countries.

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