Name: Trump appears to change tune on China tariffs
Uploaded: 2025-05-09T16:49:35.833Z
Duration: 3 min 49 s
Description: U.S. President Donald Trump appears ready to lower tariffs on China as the U.S. prepares for trade talks in Switzerland. Peter Goodman, a reporter for The New York Times, joins CBS News with what to expect.

U.S. President Donald Trump appears ready to lower tariffs on China as the U.S. prepares for trade talks in Switzerland. Peter Goodman, a reporter for The New York Times, joins CBS News with what to expect.

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Donald Trump has signed an order to impose tariffs imports into the U.S. from countries including China, Mexico and Canada.

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U.S. President Donald Trump has indicated a possible reduction in tariffs on Chinese goods, according to a post on Truth Social. In the post, Trump suggested that an 80% tariff on China “seems right,” but stated the final decision would be left to Treasury Secretary Scott Besant. This represents a potential decrease from the current 145% tariffs imposed on a range of Chinese imports.

Upcoming trade discussions between U.S. and Chinese representatives are scheduled to take place in Switzerland. The talks occur in a context where reduced shipping activity from China to the U.S. has been observed, leading to concerns over storage backups and supply chain uncertainty.

Peter Goodman, global economics correspondent for The New York Times, commented that while a reduction in tariffs would alter economic conditions, uncertainty remains a significant issue for businesses. The lack of clarity around trade policy, he noted, creates challenges for companies making supply and investment decisions.

Goodman also pointed out that divergent statements from Trump’s advisors, such as Treasury Secretary Scott Besant and chief trade advisor Peter Navarro, have added to the unpredictability. This uncertainty, according to Goodman, can discourage companies from committing to large orders or relocating manufacturing to the U.S.

The discussions in Switzerland are not part of a formally arranged economic summit, but rather coincidental meetings in the same location. The long-term impact of these negotiations on tariffs, supply chains, and manufacturing remains to be determined.



Trump appears to change tune on China tariffs

All right, President Trump has seemingly, seemingly changed his tune on tariffs on China. He said in a post on Truth Social that an 80% tariff on the country, quote, seems right, but he'll leave the decision up to Treasury Secretary Scott Besant. Now, this would be a sharp cut from the current 145% tariffs on many Chinese goods. The two sides are speaking this weekend in Switzerland. Peter Goodman joins me now. He's the global economics correspondent for The New York Times and the author of How the World Ran Out of Everything Inside the Global Supply Chain. Peter, great to have you with us. Good to be here. You know, speaking of the world running out of everything, the commentary on the trade war as it stands is that there are fewer container ships coming from China to the U.S. Now there will be a storage backup. But how might this proposal and these conversations coming up this weekend change how hard Americans might be hit by it? Well, I mean, in theory, if you lower the tariff 145% to 80%, that changes the economics. But it doesn't do anything about the uncertainty. And you know, it's one of the great cliches in business, but it happens to be true. I mean, companies can deal with whatever circumstances they're dealing with if they have some sense of what the rules will be, the terms of trade will be going forward. And this, you know, the fact that we got 145% tariff and suddenly we've got a social media post saying we're going to slash that to 80%, but actually it's up to the Treasury Secretary who's had different talking points than Peter Navarro, who's President Trump's chief trade advisor. You know, the Treasury Secretary has been the one to say to Wall Street, hey, we hear you. We're trying to deal with the stock market route, while Navarro seems to be fighting sort of holy war to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. All of this just underscores that change and chaos seem to be permanent features. And that does not make a supplier of goods, you know, in the mood to suddenly write a check for a big order, because they know that by the time the stuff shows up at the docks of L.A. or Long Beach or wherever, the terms of trade could be different yet again. And all of that reinforces just waiting to see what's going to happen. And isn't that the most damaging aspect of the Trump trade war so far? It isn't necessarily what the specific numbers have been week to week, but it's the overall uncertainty and lack of trust of other nations that the U.S. will follow through and be a reliable partner on previously agreed-to terms. And so, considering that, what can really be accomplished this weekend in Switzerland? Well, who knows? But I think it's fair to say that chaos is part of the policy here. I mean, the president has told us time and again, you don't like tariffs, you don't want tariffs, here's the one safe harbor, make your stuff in the United States, to which companies have said, well, hold on, first of all, we don't know how long you're going to be around, how long the tariffs will be around, we're not going to start writing checks for millions of dollars to build factories in the United States with the risk that this policy could go away and suddenly our competitors can go back to China or some other lower-cost producer of goods and we'll have an uneconomic factory in the United States. So there's a lot of reasons to doubt whether this policy can effectively bring manufacturing back to the United States, but I don't think there's a lot of reason to doubt that that seems to be one of the Trump administration's goals, and that uncertainty serves that goal of making manufacturers nervous about relying on overseas factories. Yeah, and even these talks are really coincidental. They happen to be in the same place at the same time. It's not as if it is an economic summit that the two have researched and agreed to ahead of time. Still, we'll be watching closely. Peter Goodman, thanks for joining us and giving us some of your views. Thank you.

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