Trump says tariffs on China will be "substantially reduced" but "will not be zero"

US President Donald Trump has said that final tariffs on goods from China "will not be anywhere near" the current rate of 145%, and would be "substantially reduced".

During a press conference in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump told reporters that "145% is very high and it's not going to be that high."

"It will decrease significantly, but it will not be zero," he added, they write. foreign media, the Telegraph reports.

The president's comments were in response to a question about Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who said earlier Tuesday that tariffs between China and the U.S. have essentially created a trade embargo.

Trump said the US "will be very good to China, will have a great relationship with President Xi."

However, he did not provide further details on whether he was in negotiations with Beijing over the tariffs.

Last week, Trump indicated that he may not raise tariffs on China further, even if China continues to do so, saying there is a point at which "people don't buy."

Trump imposed a 10% tariff on China in February. He said the tariff was aimed at curbing the flow of drugs from China to the US.

Since then, both countries have spent weeks imposing retaliatory tariffs on each other, escalating trade tensions.

US tariffs on goods from China are now 145%. China has retaliated with 125% tariffs on US-made goods.

Trump has used tariffs as a negotiating strategy.

On April 3, he stressed that he would be open to lowering tariffs on countries if they were willing to give the US "something that's so phenomenal."

He offered tariff relief to China if the latter agreed to a deal on TikTok.

China's ByteDance, which owns TikTok, faces a looming deadline to abandon the app or ban it in the US. /Telegraph/