President Donald Trump says tariffs on Chinese imports to the United States will eventually be lowered, after both Beijing and Washington appeared to soften their positions about potential trade talks.
“At some point, I’m going to lower them because otherwise you could never do business with them,” he said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker,” which taped on Friday. “They want to do business very much … their economy is collapsing.”
Weeks of tit-for-tat escalation between the world’s two largest economies have driven US tariffs on Chinese products to a staggering 145% and Chinese levies on American goods to 125%. Over the past two weeks, both sides have appeared to moderate their rhetoric.
In the interview, which aired Sunday, Trump acknowledged the toll the tariffs have taken on China, pointing to factory closures and unemployment “through the roof,” but insisted that he would not make the first move.
“You’re not dropping the tariffs against China to get them to the negotiating table?” Welker asked.
“Why would I do that?” Trump responded.
On Friday, a spokesperson for China’s Commerce Ministry said the country was “currently assessing” proposals by the US to begin trade talks, but that Trump must “cancel” his “unilateral tariff hikes” first.
The US tariffs have already started to affect China’s export-reliant economy. In April, factory activity there showed its steepest contraction in 16 months, while new export orders dipped to their lowest level since 2022, during the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to official data.
On Sunday, Trump told reporters on board Air Force One that he has no plans to speak to Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week. “But China and our people are talking about different things,” he added.
Trump said he seeks a “fair” trade deal with China, while repeating his claim that the country has taken advantage of the US, in terms of trade, for years.
Besides China, Trump said his administration was meeting with “almost” every country, and some trade deals “could very well be” announced this week.
“We’re negotiating with many countries but at the end of this I’ll set my own deals because I set the deal, they don’t set the deal,” he said.
Depending on the status of negotiations, he said: “At a certain point I’ll be just setting a certain tariff number.”
During the NBC interview, Trump also said he was willing to extend the deadline for Chinese company ByteDance to sell the US operation of TikTok, a wildly popular short video platform that has amassed 170 million American users.
Congress, under then-President Joe Biden, passed a law last year requiring the Beijing-based company to divest TikTok in the US or face a ban over national security concerns. Trump has twice extended the deadline because a deal has yet to materialize, despite repeatedly emphasizing the massive interest that American investors have in the app.
“I’d like to see it done,” he said, adding that he had a “sweet spot” for the platform, as it helped him win over young voters during the 2024 presidential election.
“TikTok is very interesting, but it will be protected,” he added.
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