Donald Trump hints China tariffs could end soon, TikTok deal on hold

• US President Donald Trump suggests the end of tit-for-tat tariff hikes between the US and China.
• He also hinted at a delay in a deal over the fate of TikTok.
• Trump’s comments indicate a reduced willingness to impose higher tariffs on dozens of countries.

On Thursday, United States President Donald Trump signalled that the tit-for-tat tariff hikes between the US and China, which had shocked markets, could come to an end. He also stated that a deal over the fate of social media platform TikTok might have to wait.

“I don’t want them to go higher because at a certain point you make it where people don’t buy,” Trump told reporters about tariffs at the White House.

“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.”

Trump’s comments indicated a reduced willingness to impose sharply higher across-the-board tariffs on dozens of countries after markets reacted violently to their introduction on April 2.

The Republican president imposed 10% tariffs on most goods entering the country but delayed implementing higher levies, pending negotiations.

Still, he raised rates on Chinese imports, now totaling 145%, after Beijing retaliated with its counter-measures. Last week, China signaled that it “will not respond” to a “numbers game with tariffs,” indicating that across-the-board rates would not rise further.

Trump said that China had reached out since the imposition of tariffs and expressed optimism about reaching a deal.

While the two sides are in touch, sources told Reuters that high-level exchanges, which could lead to a deal, have largely been absent.

Speaking with reporters, Trump repeatedly declined to specify the nature of the talks between the countries or confirm whether they directly involved Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Trump has repeatedly extended the legal deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the US assets of the short video app used by 170 million Americans. On Thursday, he said that they would likely wait to finalize a spin-off deal until the trade issue is 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,” said Trump.

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