“Thought it was done, but I guess it’s never really over.”

When international pop superstar Katy Perry sang these lyrics five years ago, she may have been predicting her long-running trade mark battle with an Australian fashion designer.

Katie Jane Taylor sued Perry in October 2019, more than 10 years after the performer behind hits like Firework, Roar and Dark Horse started selling merchandise, including clothing, under her own name.

The designer had sold her own line of clothing under the Katie Perry label since 2007 after becoming inspired by a trip to Italy.

She achieved a further legal win in the case on Friday with the High Court allowing her lawsuit against Perry to continue by granting her application for special leave.

This will allow her to try overturn a Full Federal Fourt judgment from November that the US singer, whose real name is Katheryn Hudson, did not infringe the Katie Perry mark by selling clothing during the 2014 Prism tour in Australia.

Three judges from the Full Court had thrown out Justice Brigitte Markovic’s 2023 findings that Perry’s firm Kitty Purry had infringed the mark.

Ms Taylor’s own trade mark would be deregistered, the judges said.

On Friday, her barrister Christian Dimitriadis SC said the appeal judges had erred in their interpretation of Australian trade mark law.

Just because Perry had a reputation as a pop star at the time the Katie Perry trade mark was registered in 2009 did not mean she also had a reputation for selling clothing at the time, he argued.

The Full Court found that while the singer was not known for selling clothes in 2009, her status as a celebrity meant she was likely to expand into selling at least branded clothing later.

There was a chance this could cause deception or confusion amongst those buying items from the fashion designer thinking they were related to the pop star, the Full Court said.

High Court Justice Jayne Jagot questioned this on Friday.

“If you’re sufficiently famous, the capacity is to monetise in all kinds of directions, not just clothing,” she said.

The logic the celebrities could use their reputation to expand into clothing could also apply and impact Australians selling products ranging from whiskey and wine to perfume and invisible teeth braces, the judge said.

Ms Taylor had the misfortune of choosing a trade mark similar to someone who became famous and then proceeded to sell clothing in Australia knowing she was infringing that mark, Mr Dimitriadis said.

The Full Court’s decision to deregister the Katie Perry brand because it found the designer applied for the trade mark knowing of the US singer’s reputation was incorrect, he submitted.

Perry’s barrister Matthew Darke SC unsuccessfully argued that the High Court should not hear the case as it did not involve an important question of law.

Ms Taylor declined to comment on the case after the hearing.

The High Court will hear the full appeal at a later date.

Peter Dutton has vigorously defended the opposition’s ailing election campaign as polling suggests the coalition could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

And it’s not the only defence Mr Dutton has been forced into, as a serious challenge brews in his own electorate.

Mr Dutton was courting voters at an event hosted by The West Australian on Friday when the paper’s editor-in-chief Chris Dore delivered an unconventional introduction that contrasted a “match-fit, super confident” prime minister against a “punch-drunk” opposition leader.

But Mr Dutton did not take that lying down and used the comments from the Perth gathering – which included the West’s owner billionaire businessman Kerry Stokes, 84 – to show he could handle challenges.

“You’ll deal with all the slings and arrows and the derogatory comments and editors trying to be funny and not succeeding,” he told reporters in Perth on Friday.

“That has steeled me for anything this job has thrown at me – or what could be thrown at me if I’m given the immense pleasure of being prime minister.

“I don’t need to attack the character of the prime minister to win the next election … what I want to offer the Australian people is a much more positive future.”

Mr Dutton started the year with the wind at his back, driven by Australia’s cost-of-living crisis amid a worldwide turn against incumbent governments.

But since the May 3 election was announced, the coalition has been bleeding support.

Fresh YouGov polling released to AAP reveals Labor has forged ahead, 52.5 per cent to 47.5 over the coalition in the two-party preferred vote.

The result is Labor’s best in months and slightly higher than its polling of 52.1 per cent at the 2022 election, putting the party in pole position for a majority government rather than a widely forecast minority.

By contrast, the coalition’s primary vote is now down to 33.5 per cent – lower than at the 2022 election.

Mr Dutton’s work-from-home policy had sparked the fall and taken his party from “being in the box seat to win the federal election in February to struggling to hold onto the seats they won in 2022”, YouGov director of public data Paul Smith said.

“The coalition’s support has fallen so far that they now risk losing seats,” he said.

While Mr Dutton walked back his work-from-home stance, Mr Smith said it had done “enormous damage” because voters now believed the coalition failed to understand their working lives or support people’s workplace rights.

“There have been only two prime ministers who have lost their seats – John Howard and Stanley Melbourne Bruce – and that was because they went against Australians’ rights at work,” he said.

Mr Dutton currently holds the north Brisbane electorate of Dickson on a 1.7 per cent margin, but both Labor and an independent are hoping to seize on his constituents’ discontent and push him out.

“I don’t like him, he’s slimy, he’s not honest, he looks after the big cats,” Petrie local Brett Middlebrook told AAP

“He does nothing for the Australian worker – that’s what he’s all about, that’s what that party’s all about.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese tried to capitalise on the polling momentum and lean into Labor’s perceived strengths on Friday when he visited a Northern Territory urgent care clinic to reveal $60 million for an aged care program and $10 million for CareFlight.

Mr Albanese said Labor was still eyeing a majority government.

“I want people to get that pencil and the ballot paper and put a ‘one’ next to their Labor candidate,” he told reporters in Darwin.

“That is the way you elect a majority Labor government, that’s my objective, that’s what we’re aiming for.”

The YouGov poll of 1515 people was carried out between April 4 to 10, with a 3.3 per cent margin of error.

Global stocks slumped and the dollar sank further on Friday, while a manic bond selloff took hold in a brutal end to the week of tit-for-tat worldwide tariffs that have fed fears of a deep recession and shaken investor confidence in US assets.

The anxiety has sparked a rush into safe havens, sending the Swiss franc soaring to a decade high against the dollar, and gold to a new peak after a brief but massive relief rally following US President Donald Trump’s move to temporarily lower tariffs on many countries.

The selloff in US Treasuries picked up pace during Asian hours, with the 10-year note yield rising to 4.475 per cent, gaining over 40 basis points in the week, the biggest increase since 2001, LSEG data showed.

Analysts and investors across the globe have pointed to this week’s sharp sell-off in Treasuries and weakness in the dollar as evidence that confidence in the world’s biggest economy has been shaken.

“There’s clearly an exodus from US assets. A falling currency and bond market is never a good sign,” said Kyle Rodda, senior financial markets analyst at Capital.com. “This goes beyond pricing in a growth slowdown and trade uncertainty.”

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei tumbled 4.5 per cent on the day, while stocks in South Korea fell 1.7 per cent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.5 per cent lower.

US futures for S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell about 1.0 per cent each after a sharp drop overnight.

“The short-term outlook for global risk assets remains uncertain given growth and inflation concerns, fluid sentiments and fast-changing developments on the trade and tariff fronts,” said Vasu Menon, managing director of investment strategy at OCBC Bank in Singapore.

Investors are grappling with worries over the escalating Sino-US trade war after Trump ratcheted up tariffs on Chinese imports, raising them effectively to 145 per cent.

China has hit back, hiking its tariffs on the US with each Trump increase, raising fears that Beijing may jack up duties above the current 84 per cent.

Chinese stocks made a subdued start on Friday. The blue-chip CSI300 Index was off 0.5 per cent while Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng was down 0.38 per cent.

James Athey, fixed income manager at Marlborough, said the outlook remains darker and more clouded in uncertainty than it did a month ago. 

“There are still so many unanswered and unanswerable questions,” he said.

The US dollar has faced relentless selling in the past few weeks, with traders seeking shelter in the Japanese yen , the Swiss franc as well as the euro .

On Friday, the dollar sank to its lowest in 10 years against the Swiss franc and a six-month low against the yen. The euro surged 1.7 per cent to $US1.1385 ($A1.8314)5, a level last seen in February 2022.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six other units, fell below 100 for the first time since July 2023. The dollar’s slide provided relief to some of the currencies in emerging markets, including the ringgit.

Markets mostly shrugged off data from US Labor Department that showed consumer prices unexpectedly fell in March although the improvement in inflation is unlikely to be sustained in the wake of tariffs.

Meanwhile, a violent US Treasury selloff this week, evoking the COVID-era “dash for cash”, had reignited fears of fragility in the world’s biggest bond market.

Thirty-year bond yields rose to 4.90 per cent, on course for their biggest weekly jump since at least 1982, LSEG data showed.

In commodities, gold prices scaled a record high on safe haven flows. It was last up 1.25 per cent at $US3,214 ($A5,170) per ounce.

Oil prices slipped in early trading on Friday after settling more than $US2 ($A3.2) per barrel lower on Thursday. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 0.48 per cent, while Brent crude futures fell 0.46 per cent.

The coalition could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, new polling suggests as the prime minister capitalises on Labor’s momentum in the Top End.

Peter Dutton started the year with the wind at his back, driven by the cost-of-living crisis amid a worldwide turn against incumbent governments.

But since the May 3 election was announced, the coalition has only bled support.

Fresh YouGov polling released to AAP reveals Labor has gained ground, forging ahead 52.5 per cent to 47.5 over the coalition in the two-party preferred vote.

The result is Labor’s best in months and slightly higher than its polling of 52.1 per cent at the 2022 election, putting the party in pole position for a majority government rather than a widely forecast minority.

By contrast, the coalition’s primary vote is now down to 33.5 per cent – lower than at the 2022 election.

Mr Dutton’s work-from-home policy had sparked the fall and taken his party from “being in the box seat to win the federal election in February to struggling to hold onto the seats they won in 2022”, YouGov director of public data Paul Smith said.

“The coalition’s support has fallen so far that they now risk losing seats,” he said.

“Peter Dutton’s work-from-home blunder has taken him from a winning position to a losing one in a dramatic way we rarely see.”

While Mr Dutton moved to stem the fall by backflipping on his work-from-home policy, Mr Smith said it had done “enormous damage” because voters now believed the coalition failed to understand their working lives or support people’s workplace rights.

“There have been only two prime ministers who have lost their seats – John Howard and Stanley Melbourne Bruce – and that was because they went against Australians’ rights at work,” he said.

The hit is also personal, with Anthony Albanese increasing his lead as preferred prime minister by four points to 48 per cent compared to Mr Dutton’s 37 per cent.

The 11 percentage-point difference is the largest since June 2024 when Mr Albanese was struggling to win over voters.

The prime minister has experienced a boost to his net satisfaction score to minus 2, while the opposition leader records his equal-lowest rating at minus 15.

Since the previous Friday, Labor’s primary vote is up by two points to 32 per cent, while the coalition is down one-and-a-half to 33.5 per cent.

The YouGov poll of 1515 people was carried out between April 4 to 10, with a 3.3 per cent margin of error.

Falling support for the opposition leader has been mirrored in other recent polling as Labor and Mr Albanese appear to win over Australians.

The prime minister leaned further into Labor’s perceived strengths on Friday when he visited a Northern Territory urgent care clinic to reveal $60 million for an aged care program and $10 million for CareFlight.

Mr Albanese maintained Labor was still eyeing a majority government.

“I want people to get that pencil and the ballot paper and put a ‘one’ next to their Labor candidate,” he told reporters in Darwin.

“That is the way you elect a majority Labor government, that’s my objective, that’s what we’re aiming for.”

Mr Dutton attended a business breakfast in Perth hosted by The West Australian newspaper, where he committed to abolishing penalties for automakers under a government scheme aimed at incentivising the uptake of fuel-efficient vehicles.

Parliamentarians and aspiring parliamentarians will find out the order their names will appear on the ballot paper, when the Australian Electoral Commission conducts the ballot draw for candidates at midday.

Australian shares have resumed their downward slide after the White House confirmed raising tariffs on China to 145 per cent, fuelling global recession fears.

In early trading the S&P/ASX200 was down 172.2 points, or 2.26 per cent, to 7,537.4, as the broader All Ordinaries fell 171.5 points, or 2.17 per cent, to 7,742.4.

The slip on Friday comes after a broad-based sell-off on Wall Street overnight, after the S&P500 fell 3.46 per cent, the tech-led Nasdaq lost 4.31 per cent and the Dow Jones Industrial index lost 2.50 per cent.

“US share markets sold off overnight in a disappointing sequel to the previous session’s surge higher,” Moomoo market analyst Michael McCarthy said.

“While many of the US administration’s newly imposed tariffs were “paused”, the clarification that its trade barrier against China now sits at 145 per cent was the catalyst for the latest rout.”

Markets had rallied the day before after US President Donald Trump announced a 90-day delay for the bulk of his “Liberation Day” tariffs, while escalating tariffs on China to 125 per cent.

The White House later clarified the effective tariff on Chinese good was 145 per cent, when including an earlier 20 per cent impost related to the fentanyl trade.

Ten of 11 local sectors were trading lower by 10.40am, with only the defensive consumer staples eking a 0.2 per cent gain.

Energy stocks were again in trouble, down four per cent as trade war worries weighed on oil prices, with Brent crude futures falling three per cent since yesterday’s ASX close to below $US63 per barrel.

Financial stocks were bleeding 2.9 per cent lower with all big four banks in the red, and materials stocks lost 1.3 per cent as global growth concerns again dragged on miners.

Gold miners were an exception with Newmont Corporation, Regis Resources and West African Resources leading the bourse with more than three per cent gains as investors ducked for cover and gold futures broke convincingly above $US3200 per ounce for the first time.

The Australian dollar is buying 62.18 US cents, up slightly from 61.94 at 5pm on Thursday.

Voters continue to abandon Peter Dutton with latest polling showing the coalition has gone from being “in the box seat” to win the election to the prospect of losing seats on May 3.

Latest YouGov polling, released to AAP, reveals Labor has gained ground to forge ahead 52.5 per cent to 47.5 per cent over the coalition in the two-party preferred vote.

The result is the best for Labor in months and slightly higher than its polling of 52.1 per cent at the 2022 election.

The coalition’s primary vote is now down to 33.5 per cent – lower than at the 2022 election.

Falling support for the opposition leader has been mirrored in other recent polling as Labor and Mr Albanese continue to build momentum as the election draws near.

Mr Dutton’s work-from-home policy had sparked the fall and taken his party from “being in the box seat to win the federal election in February to struggling to hold onto the seats they won in 2022,” YouGov director of public data Paul Smith said.

“The coalition’s support has fallen so far that they now risk losing seats.

“Peter Dutton’s work-from-home blunder has taken him from a winning position to a losing one in a dramatic way we rarely see.”

While Mr Dutton has moved to stem the fall by backflipping on his work-from-home policy and apologising, Mr Smith said it had “done enormous damage to him because voters have formed a strong opinion that (the coalition) does not understand their working lives and that they aren’t on side with people’s rights at work”.

The hit is also personal with Mr Albanese increasing his lead as preferred prime minister by four points to 48 per cent compared to Mr Dutton’s 37 per cent.

The 11 per cent difference is the largest since June 2024, when Mr Albanese was struggling to win over voters.

Mr Albanese has experienced a boost to his net satisfaction score to -2, while the opposition leader records his equal lowest rating at -15.

“Peter Dutton has fallen 4 per cent further behind as the preferred Prime Minister in just a week – a sure sign that his forced backdown from his unpopular work-from-home policies has directly impacted his personal standing with voters,” Mr Smith said.

“There have been only two prime ministers who have lost their seats – John Howard and Stanley Melbourne Bruce – and that was because they went against Australians’ rights at work.”

Since last Friday, Labor’s primary vote is up by two points to 32 per cent, while the coalition is down one-and-a-half to 33.5 per cent.

One Nation has slightly increased its share to 8.5 per cent, with the Greens unchanged on 13 per cent.

Independents are down two points to nine per cent of the primary vote, while the Trumpet of Patriots – which has the backing of mining magnate Clive Palmer – is down one point to one per cent.

Mr Albanese will be in the Northern Territory on Friday, where he is expected to make a health-related announcement.

Mr Dutton will be in Perth to attend a business breakfast hosted by the West Australian newspaper.

It will be the opposition leader’s second visit to the mining state during the election campaign.

The Australian Electoral Commission will conduct the ballot draw for candidates at midday.

Parliamentarians and wannabe politicians will find out the order their names will appear on the ballot paper.

The YouGov poll of 1515 people was carried out between April 4 to 10, with a margin of error of 3.3 per cent.

Donald Trump’s dramatic tariff backflip has soothed turbulent bond markets but not all is “beautiful”, as the US president declared.

Amid soaring uncertainty traders remain on edge – with the volatility index at a five-year high – and Australia is not immune to financial shocks from the US.

While Mr Trump was prepared to ride out falls on equity markets, he couldn’t afford to look through what was happening in the fixed income market, as bond yields surged when they should have been going lower, IG markets analyst Tony Sycamore said.

As the risk of an economic downturn rose and hedge funds got squeezed, investors bailed from US government debt, sending bond yields skyward – something Mr Trump couldn’t ignore.

“The bond market is hugely, hugely important. It governs all the other markets,” Mr Sycamore told AAP.

“He realised that he risked causing some very significant damage to the US economy, to the plumbing, to the liquidity, and I believe that was the catalyst for him to change tack.”

Mr Trump acknowledged the concerns after his decision to pause tariffs.

“The bond market right now is beautiful,” he said. 

“I saw last night where people were getting a little queasy.”

Brown Brothers Harriman strategists Win Thin and Elias Haddad said the relief rally was likely to be short-lived.

“The pervasive uncertainty created by continuously changing US tariff threats and escalating US-China trade war remain a major drag to the global economy,” they said. 

There is heightened risk the US falls into stagflation, which spells bad news for bond prices as it would limit the Federal Reserve’s ability to cut rates to boost the economy.

Markets are set for months of uncertainty, with the delayed tariffs still looming overhead.

That could spell trouble for the Australian economy if US bond traders get spooked again.

“We don’t operate in a vacuum and our bond markets are linked to what’s going on in the US,” Mr Sycamore said. 

“If yields are going higher in the US, then our bond yields are going higher too.”

That’s especially troublesome for Australia’s banking sector, which derives significant funding from overseas markets.

“When these bond yields start to move around, it makes their funding more expensive,” Mr Sycamore said.

“It’s not something which a one or two-day move is going to be particularly important for.

“But if it happened over the space of a week or two or three or four, and their funding costs start to blow out, that could be problematic for the banks.”

Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock looked to reassure Australians at a speech on Thursday night.

“The Australian financial system is strong and well placed to absorb shocks from abroad,” she told the Chief Executive Women annual dinner in Melbourne.

Traders are predicting the central bank to cut interest rates at its next meeting in May before possibly delivering another 100 basis points of relief before Christmas.

Each 25 basis point cut would shave about $90 off the monthly interest payments of an average $600,000 mortgage.

US President Donald Trump’s administration is weighing offers from more than a dozen countries on tariff deals and is close to reaching agreements with some of them, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett says.

“USTR has informed us that there are maybe 15 countries now that have made explicit offers that we’re studying and considering and deciding whether they’re good enough to present the president,” Hassett told reporters at the White House, referring to the US trade representative.

Principals in the administration’s trade policy will meet at the White House on Thursday to discuss how to prioritise the separate negotiations, Hassett said.

Hassett repeatedly stated that there will be no off-the-shelf solutions but that negotiations are aimed at achieving tailored results.

According to earlier statements from the administration, representatives from more than 75 countries had already called the White House to express their willingness to engage in talks.

Trump announced on Wednesday that the US would pause most of its worldwide tariffs for 90 days except for those against China.

The European Union was due to launch counter-tariffs on about 21 billion euros ($A37.59 billion) of US imports next Tuesday in response to Trump’s 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium but the bloc will put them on hold for 90 days, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said.

The EU is still assessing how to respond to US car tariffs and the broader 10 per cent levies that remain in place.

“We want to give negotiations a chance,” von der Leyen said on X. 

“While finalising the adoption of the EU countermeasures that saw strong support from our Member States, we will put them on hold for 90 days.”

Trump’s sudden decision on Wednesday to pause most of his hefty new duties brought relief to battered markets and anxious global leaders, even as he ratcheted up trade tensions with China.

China rejected what it called threats and blackmail from the US.

China will “follow through to the end” if the US persists, Commerce Ministry spokeswoman He Yongqian told a regular press briefing. 

China’s door was open to dialogue but this must be based on mutual respect, the ministry said.

Trump, who says the tariffs aim to fix UStrade imbalances, said a resolution with China on trade is also possible. 

But officials have said they will prioritise talks with countries such as Vietnam, Japan, South Korea and others lined up to try and strike a bargain.

China’s yuan hit its lowest against the US dollar on Thursday since the global financial crisis.

Wall Street’s main indexes extended declines in afternoon trading on Thursday, with the benchmark S&P 500 plunging more than 5 per cent as investor concerns about the economic damage from US tariff policies returned to the fore.

with DPA

The Prada Group has announced a deal to buy Italy’s Versace from the US luxury group Capri Holdings.

The agreement values the Versace fashion house at 1.25 billion euros ($A2.3 billion).

Prada said the addition of Versace’s “highly recognisable aesthetic … constitutes a strongly complementary addition” to its portfolio, which includes the Prada and Miu Miu fashion brands.

It said Milan-based Versace offered “significant untapped growth potential”.

The final value of the deal will be adjusted at closing, expected in the second half of the year.

It will be funded by 1.5 billion euros in new debt and has been approved by the Prada and Capri Holdings board of directors.

“Versace will maintain its creative DNA and cultural authenticity while benefitting from the full strength of the Group’s considerable consolidated platform, including industrial capabilities, retail execution and operational expertise,” Prada said in a statement.

Versace, founded in 1978 by the late Gianni Versace, has been owned since 2018 by Capri Holdings which includes Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo.

Capri Holdings paid $US2 billion ($A3.2 billion) for Versace but had been struggling in the recent era of “quiet luxury'” to position the stalwart of Italian fashion with its sexy silhouettes and loud patterns.

Last month, Capri Holdings named Dario Vitale as creative director to replace Donatella Versace, who assumed the role after her brother’s 1997 murder.

Vitale came from Miu Miu, the stunningly successful youth-driven brand in the Prada Group.

Versace was given the new role of chief brand ambassador in the shake-up, which was widely viewed as setting the scene for the long-rumoured Prada sale.

Miuccia Prada acknowledged the group’s interest on the sidelines of Milan Fashion Week in February.

The European Union will pause its countermeasures against US tariffs after President Donald Trump temporarily lowered the hefty duties he had imposed on dozens of countries, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen says.

The bloc was due to launch counter-tariffs on about 21 billion euros ($A37.59 billion) of US imports from next Tuesday in response to Trump’s 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium. It is still assessing how to respond to US car tariffs and the broader 10 per cent levies still in place.

“We want to give negotiations a chance,” von der Leyen said on X.

“While finalising the adoption of the EU countermeasures that saw strong support from our Member States, we will put them on hold for 90 days.”

Von der Leyen reaffirmed an offer for a “zero-for-zero” tariff agreement for all industrial goods between the EU and the US.

Trump’s stunning decision brought relief to battered global markets and anxious European leaders, even as he ratcheted up a trade war with China.

Trump’s turnabout, which came less than 24 hours after steep new tariffs kicked in on most trading partners, followed the most intense episode of financial market volatility since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

US stock indexes shot higher on the news, and the relief continued into Asian and European trading on Thursday.

The pan-European STOXX 600 jumped 5.4 per cent in trading on Thursday, after losing 12.5 per cent since the tariffs took effect on April 2. Trade-sensitive Germany’s DAX index rose 5.6 per cent.

Before Trump’s U-turn, the upheaval had erased trillions of dollars from stock markets and led to an unsettling surge in US government bond yields that appeared to catch the US president’s attention.

“I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line, they were getting yippy, you know,” Trump told reporters after the announcement, referring to the jitters sportspeople sometimes get.

Trump kept the pressure on China, the world’s No.2 economy and second-biggest provider of US imports with an increase of tariffs on Chinese imports to 125 per cent from the 104 per cent level that kicked in on Wednesday.

China will “follow through to the end” if the US insists on its own way, Commerce Ministry spokesperson He Yongqian told a regular press briefing. China’s door was open to dialogue, but this must be based on mutual respect, the ministry said.

“The US cause doesn’t win the support of the people and will end in failure,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said.

Beijing may again respond in kind after imposing 84 per cent tariffs on US imports on Wednesday to match Trump’s earlier tariff salvo.

“We don’t back down,” Mao Ning, another Foreign Ministry spokesperson, posted earlier on X on Thursday, sharing a video of a defiant speech by late Chinese leader Mao Zedong from 1953 during its war with the United States on the Korean peninsula.

The Korean War ended in a stalemate later that year.

Trump said a resolution with China on trade is also possible. But officials have said they will prioritise talks with other countries as Vietnam, Japan, South Korea and others line up to try and strike a bargain.

“China wants to make a deal,” Trump said. “They just don’t know how quite to go about it.”

Goldman Sachs revised down its forecasts for China’s GDP growth to four per cent in 2025, from previous projections of 4.5 per cent, citing the negative effects of tariffs.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent asserted the 90-day freeze on Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” had been the plan all along to bring countries to the table. Trump, though, later indicated that the near-panic in markets that had unfolded since his April 2 announcements had factored into his thinking.

Trump’s reversal on the tariffs imposed on other countries is also not absolute. A 10 per cent blanket duty on almost all US imports will remain in effect, the White House said. 

The announcement also does not appear to affect duties on autos, steel and aluminium that are already in place.