Trump Says He Will Lower Tariffs On China ‘At Some Point,’ Warns Their Economy Is Collapsing

The President said he wouldn’t drop tariffs to bring the country to the negotiating table.

U.S. President Donald Trump said his administration would lower tariffs on goods imported from China “at some point,” but also asserted that he wouldn’t be the one to take the first step.

In a long-ranging interview with NBC News’s Kristen Welker, Trump pointed out that the Chinese economy is struggling. 

“At some point, I’m going to lower them because otherwise, you could never do business with them. And they want to do business very much,” he said in the interview.

After engaging in a tit-for-tat tariff hike, the two countries softened their stance before China said it would ignore further escalations.

The Trump administration hiked tariffs on Chinese goods imported into the country to as much as 245%, while China retaliated with a 145% levy.

Since then, the Trump administration has announced exemptions for certain critical industries, including semiconductors and electronics such as phones and laptops.

“Look, their economy is really doing badly. Their economy is collapsing,” Trump said. This comes after China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that the manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) declined to 49.0 in April.

This is the steepest reduction in the past 16 months – a fall below the 50 level points to a contraction.

Amid this, Trump said he has no plans to speak with his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping.

He also said he wouldn’t drop tariffs to bring China to the negotiating table. “Why would I do that?” he said.

However, the President did say his officials are currently engaging with their counterparts in China. He also pointed to the possibility of striking a few trade deals this week.

At the time of writing, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 index, was down 0.63%.

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