After Alaska talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin which couldn't reach the deal on ending war in Ukraine, US President Donald Trump said he doesn't think he will possibly raise tariffs on China for procuring Russian oil ; however, he might have to “in two or three weeks”.
The US lowered its tariffs to 30% while China reduced to 10% in a truce expiring in November.
“Because of what happened today, I don't think I have to think of possible increase in tariffs on China,” Trump asserted. He stated he will not have to mull about retaliatory tariffs on countries procuring Russian oil right now but may have to “in two or three weeks”.
“Well, because of what happened today, I think I don't have to think about that. Now, I may have to think about it in two weeks or three weeks or something, but we don't have to think about that right now. I think, you know, the meeting went very well,” Trump informed Fox News' Sean Hannity.
Had the deadline not been extended, US tariffs on Chinese imports would have surged back to the levels seen in April, when tensions in the trade war between the world’s two largest economies were at their highest. During that period, the Trump administration had imposed sweeping tariffs of 145% on Chinese goods, prompting China to respond with retaliatory duties of 125% on American products.
Trump has a history of unveiling aggressive tariffs targeting certain countries or industries, only to later revise, postpone, or scale them down shortly afterward. For example, the “reciprocal tariffs” introduced in early April were swiftly put on hold and subsequently delayed several times before finally being implemented in a modified version last week.
Trump wanted China to ‘quickly quadruple’ its purchases of US soybean
Trump said that he wanted China to “quickly quadruple” its purchases of US soybean, according to reports.
Trump in a Truth Social post said, “This is also a way of substantially reducing China’s Trade Deficit with the USA." Chicago soybean prices climbed on August 11, though it remained uncertain whether China had agreed to increase its soybean purchases following Trump’s statement.
(With inputs from Reuters)
