US President Donald Trump on Sunday hinted at lowering tariffs on China if Beijing can do “things” for Washington as well. This comes after Trump announced 100 per cent tariff on goods from China, along with new export controls on “any and all critical software” by November 1.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday (local time), Trump said, “I have a very good relationship with President Xi of China. We’re having disputes on things. They’re paying us a tremendous amount of money in tariffs. And they’d probably like to have it be less. And we’ll work on that. But they have to give us some things too.”

“You know, they paid a lot during my first administration, my first term. Now they’re paying an unbelievable amount of money to the United States. They probably can’t pay that much. And I’m okay with that. We can lower that. But they have to do things for us too. It’s no longer a one-way street,” he added.

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Earlier, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Washington and Beijing will hold talks later this week in Malaysia, days after Trump reportedly planned to cancel his first face-to-face meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping since he returned to the White House.

US-China trade tensions

The recent tensions between the two countries also come months after tentative stability in their relationship. Notably, the US expanded some tech restrictions and planned new levies on Chinese ships entering American ports. In response, China announced tighter rules on exporting rare earths and other key materials.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization, said earlier that she urged the US and China to de-escalate trade tensions and warned that a decoupling by the two countries could reduce global economic output by seven per cent over the longer term.

China, meanwhile, has agreed to hold a new round of trade negotiations with the US amid the ongoing tariff war.