“I don’t want them to go higher because at some point you can do that where people don’t buy,” Trump told reporters.
“So, I might not want to go higher, or I don’t even want to get to that level. I might want to spend less money because you know you want people to buy and at some point, people won’t buy.”
Trump’s comment further pointed out that interest in full tariffs in dozens of countries has decreased after the market reacted violently to its introduction on April 2.
The Republican president has charged 10% tariffs on most goods entering the country but has delayed the implementation of higher taxes, awaiting negotiations.
Still, he hiked on China’s import rates after Beijing retaliated against his countermeasures, which now totaled 145%. Last week, China said it would “will not respond” to “digital games” with tariffs, and its own signals suggest that the overall tax rate will not rise further. Trump said China has been in touch since the tariffs were imposed and expressed optimism that they could reach a deal. Although the two sides remain in touch, sources told Reuters that high-level exchanges with free movement will be largely absent.
Trump repeatedly refused to designate the nature of the talks between countries during his conversation with reporters, or whether they directly included Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Trump has repeatedly extended the legal deadline for the Chinese-based beast to divest U.S. assets from short video apps used by 170 million Americans. A spin-off agreement could wait until the deal problem is resolved, he said Thursday.
“We have a deal with Tiktok, but it will be bound by China, so we will delay the deal until this thing works one way or another,” Trump said.
