US holds off tariffs until Xi summit

The US is expected to hold off announcing new tariffs on China and other trading partners until after next week’s summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US President Donald Trump, according to people familiar with the matter, a delay that could preserve such a threat as leverage in the negotiations.

While the reason for the postponement is unclear, Trump has repeatedly used tariff warnings to press trading partners for concessions. The administration had intended to release a trade report on alleged excess capacity before the meeting that would recommend a 7.5 percent tariff on Chinese goods, Bloomberg previously reported.

It is also uncertain whether the final tariff rate would change from the previously expected level, which would restore Trump’s second-term duties on China to about 20 percent, which Beijing has previously said is consistent with its trade truce with Washington.

US President Donald Trump holds up legislation at a Rose Garden dinner at the White House in Washington on Thursday.

Photo: Bloomberg

US and Chinese negotiators are set to meet over the weekend to discuss any agreements ahead of Xi’s state visit. The trip would be Xi’s first to the US since 2023, when he met former president Joe Biden during a visit that included attending the APEC summit in San Francisco.

In March, the Trump administration launched an investigation into more than a dozen major trading partners under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 over excess capacity concerns. Those expected levies, along with already-implemented duties related to forced labor, are set to eventually bring rates closer to Trump’s country-specific tariffs that were overturned by the Supreme Court earlier this year.

The Office of the US Trade Representative and the White House did not respond to requests for comment. Inside US Trade first reported the delay.

China has previously signaled that it could take action if US tariffs exceed prevailing levels when the trade truce was struck.

“Capacity issues should be viewed in a comprehensive and fair manner, and should not be used as a pretext for protectionism,” Huang Ling, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Commerce, said late last month. “We will continue to closely follow and comprehensively assess subsequent US moves, and reserve the right to take all necessary measures.”

“A key question for the US team is how much it might be willing and able to leverage tariff threats to push China for stronger import and export commitments. Chinese exporters’ resilience to Washington’s hefty tariffs through 2025 is likely to blunt that leverage,” economist Nicole Gorton-Caratelli said.