President Donald Trump made the first move ahead of US-China trade talks this weekend.
In a Friday morning Truth Social post, the president suggested significantly lowering his tariff on Chinese goods to 80% — still high but 65 percentage points lower than the current 145% rate.
The president posted: “80% Tariff on China seems right! Up to Scott B.”
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the US trade representative, Jamieson Greer, announced this week that they’d be meeting with their Chinese counterparts in Switzerland this weekend to discuss US-China trade relations as Trump’s heavy tariffs remain in effect and the trade war rages on.
“CHINA SHOULD OPEN UP ITS MARKET TO USA — WOULD BE SO GOOD FOR THEM!!! CLOSED MARKETS DON’T WORK ANYMORE!!!” Trump wrote in another Friday morning post.
Just two days ago, while speaking with reporters from the Oval Office, Trump flatly said “no” when asked whether he would consider lowering his tariffs on China to help ease this weekend’s talks, though he also recently said that the 145% tariff on China is “very high” and would “come down substantially.”
Ahead of the talks, shipments from Chinese ports have slowed. US importers have begun to weigh whether they can afford to do business now that each shipment is subject to the 145% tariff.
“It has gone very fast, so this is the result of customers reacting very, very fast on canceling orders or stopping orders and waiting to see if this is going to resolve itself,” Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc said on his company’s first-quarter earnings call.
Trump previously lashed out at China after Beijing retaliated against his “Liberation Day” tariffs. Since April, the world’s two largest economies have remained largely at loggerheads. Starting late last month, the president has said that China is talking to the White House — a claim Beijing has repeatedly denied.
The two sides couldn’t even agree on who initiated the high-level talks this weekend, but news of the face-to-face conversation was seen as a serious indication that a deal is in the offing.
The current 145% tariff is so high that many economists have essentially compared it to a trade embargo. The White House did grant a series of exemptions for certain tech items, including Apple’s iPhones, but other industries have said that price increases could be coming if relief isn’t on the horizon.
Trump said that Americans needed to take some price increases on the chin to pave the way for the reshoring of manufacturing.
“Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, and maybe the two dolls would cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally,” he told reporters in April during a Cabinet meeting.
In past talks, Trump has shown he will start with significant bluster before a breakthrough arrives. In his first term, he ratcheted up tensions with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, dismissing him as “little rocket man” before ultimately agreeing to hold historic talks with the nuclear-armed nation.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, another trade advisor, on Thursday lavished praise on the president for his methods.
“He’s the closer,” Lutnick said, looking over to Trump in the Oval Office. “He gets deals done that we could never get done.”
Correction: May 9, 2025 — An earlier version of this story misstated how much lower an 80% tariff on Chinese goods would be from 145%. It would be 45% lower, not 55%.
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