Photo by Mandel Ngan / AFP

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he expects to visit China either this year or soon afterward, highlighting improvements in economic ties between the two countries, while keeping the option of higher tariffs on the table.

Speaking to reporters as he met South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Washington, Trump pointed to recent talks with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping: “At some point, probably during this year or shortly thereafter, we’ll go to China,” News.Az reports citing foreign media.

“We’re going to have a great relationship with China,” Trump vowed.

The US leader added: “They have some cards. We have incredible cards, but I don’t want to play those cards. If I played those cards, that would destroy China.”

Tensions between the world’s two biggest economies have been simmering this year, but have significantly cooled since April, when both countries slapped escalating tariffs on each other’s exports.

At one point, the tit-for-tat duties reached triple digits on both sides, snarling supply chains as many importers halted shipments to try and wait for the governments to work things out.

Since then, Washington and Beijing have reached an agreement to de-escalate tensions, temporarily lowering tariffs to 30 percent on the United States’ side and 10 percent on China’s part.

But Trump on Monday kept the door open to hiking tariffs again if China did not hold up its end of the bargain.

“They have to give us magnets,” Trump said. “If they don’t give us magnets, then we have to charge them (a) 200 percent tariff or something.”

“But we’re not going to have a problem, I don’t think, with that,” he added.

The US-China truce has been an uneasy one, with Washington previously accusing Beijing of violating their agreement and slow-walking export license approvals for rare earths.

China is the world’s leading producer of rare earths, used to make magnets essential to the automotive, electronics and defense industries.

The countries have since agreed to move forward.

This month, they delayed the threatened reimposition of higher tariffs on each other’s exports for another 90 days — meaning the pause on steeper duties will be in place until November 10.

News.Az