President Donald Trump said he was reluctant to keep increasing tariffs on China because it could slow down trade between the two countries. He also mentioned that China had tried multiple times to open talks for a deal. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, 

Trump said he believed officials from Chinese President Xi Jinping had reached out to begin discussions. However, he avoided giving a direct answer when asked if he had personally been in touch with Xi. “I have a very good relationship with President Xi, and I think it’s going to continue. And I would say they have reached out a number of times,” Trump said. When asked whether Xi himself had contacted him directly or if it was Chinese officials who reached out, Trump responded, “Well, the same. I view it very similar. It would be top levels of China.”

“If you knew him,” Trump continued, referring to Xi, “you would know that if they reached out, he knew exactly. He knew everything about it, he runs it very tight, very strong, very smart.” The US and China have increased taxes on each other’s imports in an ongoing economic dispute between the two powerful nations. This is part of a larger effort by President Trump to place high tariffs on major trading partners. The US has raised tariffs on Chinese goods to a total of 145%, while China has responded by putting 125% duties on American products. On Thursday, Trump said he didn’t really want to keep increasing those tariffs — and hinted that he might even consider reducing them.

“At a certain point I don’t want them to go higher because at a certain point you make it where people don’t buy. So I may not want to go higher, or I may not want to even go up to that level,” Trump said. “I may want to go to less because, you know, you want people to buy.” Despite the high tariffs imposed by both countries, they have both seemed to stand firm. The White House has stated that China should make the first move, while Beijing has said it is unclear about what the US wants. On Thursday, Trump remained confident about reaching a deal that would involve trade concessions and the sale of TikTok's US assets. “Well, we have a deal for TikTok, but it’ll be subject to China, so we’ll just delay the deal till this thing works out,” he said. “ 

Trump has said that China's objections to his new tariffs delayed a deal to sell TikTok and allow the app to continue operating in the US. “I think it’s a good deal for China,” Trump said. “TikTok is good for China. And I think they’d like to see us do a deal, especially the deal that we have pretty much done with some of the best companies in the world.” When asked if he would consider tariffs if China agreed to ByteDance Ltd. selling off its US operations, Trump said it was something he could talk about with Beijing. “It’s a natural — if we’re making a deal. I guess we’ll spend five minutes talking about TikTok. It wouldn’t take very long,” he said.