President Donald Trump expressed on Friday the will to relieve tariffs in China, saying that in social networks “it seems correct” to reduce taxes from 145% to 80%.
The announcement comes a day before the Treasury Secretary, Scott Besent, will begin trade negotiations with Chinese officials at a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.
The possible reduction in Trump floated rate can avoid virtual trade stagnation between the two largest economies in the world, but the measure would not substantially facilitate the expected price increases for goods such as clothing, sports shoes and toys, analysts told ABC News.
Product scarcity would also continue to be a lower rate, they added.
“An 80% tariff would still have a dramatic effect,” News Christian Vom Lehn, professor of economics at Brigham Young University, told ABC. “It would mean a significant impact for consumers.”
Trump last month threw up tariffs on China abruptly, which led China to retaliate with 125% tariffs on US assets. Tit -for-Tat measures triggered a commercial war with the third business partner of the United States, which represented almost $ 440 billion in imports last year.
Tariffs caused warnings of a series of companies about the risk of price increases for American buyers.
The giant of the toys Mattel warned in a profit report this week of plans to change part of his supply chain outside of China, adding that when necessary he would take “price measures in his business in the United States.” The measure follows similar messages from the Best Buy electronic chain, as well as the Chinese retail retail Shein and Temu.
Chinese shipments to the United States have decreased significantly, falling 21% in April compared to an earlier year, according to the data of the General Customs Administration of China.
The risks to consumers would continue to persist for two key reasons, analysts said: an 80% tariff would still be equivalent to a punishing import tax, while uncertainty about the possibility of another policy change would make companies difficult for companies to take full advantage of the lowest rate.
Tariffs increase prices for consumers if importers do not swallow the tax burden by eating their profits or requesting that a supplier sells the product at a lower rate to compensate for a part of the cost.
According to the current rate of 145% of Chinese products, suppliers and importers, they face immense pressure while trying to support part of the fiscal cost due to concern that the highest prices would harm sales, experts told ABC News. However, due to the sky rate, many vendors have few more options than increasing prices or risk losses, they added.
That dynamic would remain in its place at a tariff rate of 80%, since it would still exceed the capacity of many companies to compensate for the additional cost with lower profits, Jason Miller, professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University.
“An 80% rate really doesn’t change things too much,” said Miller.
The workers gave touches at the end of the clothes in a company that produces for the domestic market and for export, in a textile industrial park in Shaoxing, in the province of China in Zhejiang on May 9, 2025.
Greg Baker/AFP through Getty Images
Trump’s announcement of a possible reduction in China’s rate occurred two days after Trump ruled out any rate reduction before negotiations.
The developments followed a week of a few weeks during which the two parties played if they had already begun to discuss the rates.
The general feeling of uncertainty would remain even after American tariffs were reaching 80%, which makes it difficult for companies to adapt their supply chains in a way that substantially relieves costs and, in turn, offered consumers relief, some analysts said.
“Even in a lower tariff, companies would have to wonder if this could rise again or possibly fall again,” said David Andolfatto, economist at the University of Miami, ABC News.
If companies could trust the possible 80% rate level as a long -term policy position, they can choose to redirect supply chains outside China or even start plans for some national production, and said elpholphate.
But each advertisement of the commercial policy presented by Trump seems subject to changes, and said elfolfate, pointing out several modifications already made by Trump.
“If something changes, the Trump administration can react unilaterally and return to the negotiating table,” Andolfatto added.
For its part, Besent has referred to the White House approach as a negotiation tactic, describing policy changes as “strategic uncertainty.”
Tyling before a chamber subcommittee this week, Besent said the Trump administration had begun negotiations with 17 of the 18 main commercial partners of the United States, excluding China. These countries represent the vast majority of foreign trade in the United States, said Besent.
Trump announced the framework for a commercial agreement with the United Kingdom on Thursday, marking the first agreement of this type with any nation since the White House suspended some of its “Liberation Day” rates of great reach last month.
“Each country wants to make deals,” Trump said at the Oval office on Thursday, pointing out the next conversations between Besent and Chinese officials.
“That will be very interesting,” Trump said.
