Trump says 80% China tariff 'seems right'

Move seen as first step towards resolving trade conflict between two countries

WASHINGTON:

US President Donald Trump said on Friday an 80% tariff on Chinese goods "seems right," for the first time suggesting a specific alternative to the 145% levies he has imposed on Chinese imports ahead of closely watched weekend talks.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and chief trade negotiator Jamieson Greer will meet Chinese economic tsar He Lifeng in Switzerland for talks aimed at containing a trade war between the world's two biggest economies.

It could be the first step toward resolving a damaging trade conflict that has already entangled global supply chains.

Asked how the US president came to the 80% figure, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said, "That was a number the president threw out there, and we'll see what happens this weekend." Trump will not unilaterally bring down tariffs on China, however, she stressed. "We need to see concessions from them as well."

China is also sending a top public-security official to the talks in Geneva, a source familiar with the plans said.

The development, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, is an indication of the importance of the issue of fentanyl trafficking to the talks and the wider US-China relationship.

Trump has linked the two issues, using the fentanyl scourge as the rationale for the initial imposition of punitive import taxes on goods from China, Canada and Mexico earlier this year.

China's embassy in Washington did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

"China should open up its market to USA - would be so good for them!!! Closed markets don't work anymore!!!" Trump wrote in an all-caps social media post. "80% tariff on China seems right. Up to Scott B.," he added moments later.

China's foreign ministry has decried what it calls abusive and bullying economic tactics, and said that China remains firmly opposed to what it calls an unsustainable approach to trade by the US While Trump has indicated on several recent occasions that he expects the punitive tariff rates he has imposed on China to come down, he had not until now floated a potential figure for where they might fall to.