Donald Trump says he ‘would rather not’ impose tariffs on China – live updates

Threat of tariffs is a negotiating tacticpublished at 03:43 Greenwich Mean Time

03:43 GMT

Peter Hoskins
Business reporter, Singapore

Trump
has said he thinks a trade deal between the US and China could be reached, in a
change of tone from his comments on the campaign trail.

Since
returning to the White House, he has threatened to hit China with 10% tariffs
because of the large amounts of the opioid fentanyl that he says is being sent
from China to the US through Mexico and Canada.

In
an interview with Fox News, Trump that an agreement was possible and “we have
one very big power over China, and that’s tariffs, and they don’t want them, and
I’d rather not have to use it, but it’s a tremendous power over China.”

His comments highlight how
the US President appears to be using the threat of tariffs as a negotiating
tactic.

The world’s two biggest
economies have been sparring on a number of geopolitical and economic issues, and the sources of tension
between them range from the sovereignty of Taiwan and the ownership of the
social media platform TikTok.