Trump says 80 tariff on Chinese goods seems right

US President Donald Trump said on May 9 an 80 per cent tariff on Chinese goods “seems right,” suggesting for the first time a specific alternative to the 145 per cent levies he has imposed on Chinese imports ahead of closely watched weekend talks between the two countries.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and chief trade negotiator Jamieson Greer will meet Chinese economic tsar He Lifeng in Switzerland to discuss containing a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.

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

Asked how the president arrived at the 80 per cent figure, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said, “That was a number the president threw out there, and we’ll see what happens this weekend.”

Mr Trump will not unilaterally bring down tariffs on China, however, she stressed.

“We need to see concessions from them as well,” she said.

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.

Mr Trump cited 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 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!!!” Mr 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