‘Nice conversations going with China’: Trump hints at pulling back tariffs on Beijing

Earlier, on Thursday too Trump suggested that he may roll back some of the steep duties imposed earlier this month. However, he indicated that a deal over the future of TikTok’s US operations might be delayed until broader trade issues are resolved.

“I don’t want them to go higher because at a certain point you make it where people don’t buy,” Trump told reporters at the White House, referring to tariffs. “So, I may not want to go higher or I may not want to even go up to that level. I may want to go to less because you know you want people to buy and, at a certain point, people aren’t gonna buy.”

His comments come amid growing concern over market volatility triggered by tit-for-tat tariffs between the US and China. On April 2, Trump imposed 10% tariffs on most goods entering the country, though he postponed further increases pending negotiations. Chinese imports have since been hit with combined duties of up to 145%, prompting Beijing to respond with its own counter-measures.

Last week, China signaled it would not escalate the tariff standoff, stating it “will not respond” to a “numbers game with tariffs.” Trump noted that China had reached out since the tariffs were introduced and sounded optimistic about the prospect of a deal, though he declined to confirm whether Chinese President Xi Jinping was directly involved in talks.

As for the long-delayed TikTok decision, Trump said that would take a back seat until trade matters are settled. “We have a deal for TikTok, but it’ll be subject to China so we’ll just delay the deal ’til this thing works out one way or the other,” he said.

(With inputs from Reuters)