On May 7, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump promised to maintain these record-high tariffs on imports from China. He backed up this serious pledge with this bold statement in the swearing in ceremony for the new US ambassador to China, former Senator David Perdue. Trump doubled down by saying he has no intention of reducing the current 145% tariffs on China. He feels this will do nothing to support the ongoing trade negotiations.
The president’s remarks come just three days before U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is set to meet with his Chinese counterpart in Switzerland. This meeting hopes to resolve a litany of trade and economic concerns that have emerged between the two countries. Trump’s hard line on tariffs seems calculated to bolster the U.S. negotiating hand going into these meetings.
When reporters asked him what he thought would happen at the next meeting in Europe, Trump painted an unduly rosy picture. He stated, “We’ll see … we were losing a trillion dollars a year, now we’re not losing anything, you know? It’s the way I look at it.” This claim, of course, further highlights his delusional view that the tariffs have tilted the overall economic state of play in favor of the U.S.
At the White House event, Trump faced questions as to why he wasn’t ready to roll back tariffs. This would be a significant step towards energizing China to negotiate in good faith. To those questions, his answer was clear — he said “no” in so many words to questions about rolling back the punitive tariffs. This ruling further underlines his administration’s present policy of using tariffs as bargaining chips in ongoing trade negotiations.
China, too, has answered the approaching negotiations with a list of priorities of its own, and set in stone their staunch opposition to Trump’s tariff increases. The Chinese government indicated that the U.S. requested the meeting with Bessent, revealing a willingness to engage but maintaining its position against the elevated tariffs.
Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods have become a central theme of his administration’s trade policy, aimed at addressing what he describes as unfair trade practices that previously resulted in significant financial losses for the U.S. In this way, the president’s unyieldingness on these import duties is part of a larger art of pivoting to a position of strength negotiations.
Leave a Reply