Donald Trump has acknowledged "transition difficulties" stemming from his sweeping tariff measures as US markets fell again and global trade uncertainty continued.
The US president made the comments shortly after his government revealed tariffs imposed on some products from China would reach 145%.
Following a week of wild market swings and turbulence, Trump insisted he was looking forward to striking a mutually beneficial trade deal with the Chinese, predicting it would be "very good for both countries".
On Wednesday, Trump paused his threats to impose tariffs of up to 50% on countries he called the "worst offenders", but pressed ahead with the trade war with China.
In response, the Chinese increased its retaliatory tariffs on products imported from the US to 84%.
The BBC reports that the three key US stock markets regained some ground early on Thursday, but, by closing, the S&P 500 lost 3.6%, the Dow Jones 2.5% and the Nasdaq 4.31%.
Warner Bros Discovery shares fell 14% on Thursday, while Amazon and Apple both dropped 7%.
In a cabinet meeting broadcast on TV, Trump acknowledged there would "always be transition difficulty" but said they were "trying to get the world to treat us fairly".
Referencing countries approaching the US for negotiations on trade deals, Trump said: "We're getting the respect we deserve now.
"I think you're going to see historic deals one after the other."
Meanwhile The Times reports Trump's senior allies have indicated Britain could be facing a permanent 10% tariff on US exports even if it does secure an economic deal.
Talks are ongoing in the hope the UK can negotiate to reduce the 25% tariffs imposed on cars, steel and aluminium.
But ministers are reportedly increasingly pessimistic about the prospects of being able to negotiate a full exemption from Trump's tariffs altogether.
The Times quotes Trump's senior economic adviser Kevin Hassett as saying: “I think everybody expects that the 10% baseline tariff is going to be the baseline. It is going to take some kind of extraordinary deal for the president to go below there.”