Trump says 80% tariff on China ‘seems right’ ahead of U.S.-Beijing trade talks-OxBig News Network

President Donald Trump said in a social media post Friday that an 80% tariff on Chinese goods “seems right” ahead of key trade talks this weekend.

“80% Tariff on China seems right! Up to Scott B,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is one of the U.S. officials set to speak with counterparts from China at a meeting in Switzerland.

An 80% levy would be a sharp reduction from the 145% tariff currently facing many Chinese goods. However, that number could still be seen as prohibitive to trade, and is much higher than the 10% baseline tariff in the U.S.-U.K. trade agreement that was announced Thursday.

China is seen as the key hurdle in Trump’s effort to shake up the global trading environment. While many other major countries saw the previously announced tariffs partially paused on April 9, tensions between the White House and Beijing until both countries had imposed a tariff of more than 100% on goods.

Trump said earlier this week that he was not willing to lower tariffs in order to get China to the negotiating table, but Friday’s post suggest the White House is willing to de-escalate before a broad trade agreement is reached.

China is one of the U.S. largest trading partners. In 2024, the U.S. exported $143.5 billion in goods to China, while importing $438.9 billion, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

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