Trump: Cutting tariffs depends on Beijing

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that any reduction of tariffs on Chinese imports would depend on Beijing's actions, while trade tensions between the world's two biggest economies remain high, according to Turkish news agency AA, broadcasts Periscope.

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that any reduction of tariffs on Chinese imports would depend on Beijing's actions, while trade tensions between the world's two largest economies remain high.

Asked during a meeting at the Oval Office where he signed executive orders how quickly he wanted to lower tariffs on China, Trump replied: “Well, that depends on them”.

Earlier in the day, White House spokeswoman Caroline Leavet reinforced Trump's stance in an interview for Fox News. There will be no unilateral reduction of tariffs against China... China must make an agreement with the United States of America”, she said.

Trump reiterated his past complaint about unfair trade practices. We have a very, very large country called the United States of America, and has been robbed for years and years”, he said.

He warned that failing to reach an agreement would lead Washington towards establishing a tax rating, which, according to him, could be determined soon. “over the next two or three weeks, we're going to put the number, and we're going to choose (one rate), it can also be for China”.

“If we don't reach a deal, which is possible, then we'll just put the price”, Trump added.

He said countries that want to do business in the US must decide whether to continue to trade according to those conditions.

Earlier, Trump had promised “a fair deal with China”, claiming that relations “fell out of control” during previous administrations.

The statements came in the midst of a trade war in escalation, where Trump recently increased tariffs <x0-reciproke” to China from 84% to 12%, in addition to a 20% tax related to fetany set earlier this year, bringing the effective rate to 145% for most goods.

Some Chinese products face even higher rates due to the additional 301 section tariffs addressing unfair trade practices, with articles such as electric vehicles facing up to 245% total obligations.

In response, China has imposed tariffs of up to 12% on American products and has limited exports of rare land minerals necessary to high-tech industries.