Trump signals tit-for-tat China tariffs may be near end; TikTok deal on ice

US President Donald Trump on Thursday signalled a potential end to the tit-for-tat tariff hikes between the US and China that shocked markets, and that a deal over the fate of social media platform TikTok may have to wait.

"I don't want them to go higher because at a certain point you make it where people don't buy," Trump told reporters about tariffs at the White House. "So, I may not want to go higher or I may not want to even go up to that level. I may want to go to less because you know you want people to buy and, at a certain point, people aren't gonna buy."

Trump's comments further pointed to a diminished appetite for sharply higher across-the-board tariffs on dozens of countries after markets reacted violently to their introduction on April 2.

The Republican president slapped 10 per cent tariffs on most goods entering the country but delayed the implementation of higher levies, pending negotiations.

Still, he hiked rates on Chinese imports, now totaling 145 per cent, after Beijing retaliated with its own counter-measures. Last week, China said "will not respond" to a "numbers game with tariffs," its own signal that across-the-board rates would not rise further.

Trump said China had been in touch since the imposition of tariffs and expressed optimism that they could reach a deal.

While the two sides are in touch, sources told Reuters that free-flowing, high-level exchanges of the sorts that would lead to a deal have largely been absent.

Speaking with reporters, Trump repeatedly declined to specify the nature of talks between the countries or whether they directly included Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Trump has repeatedly extended a legal deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the US assets of the short video app used by 170 million Americans. On Thursday, he said a spin-off deal would likely wait until the trade issue is settled.

"We have a deal for TikTok, but it'll be subject to China so we'll just delay the deal 'til this thing works out one way or the other," Trump said.