US president Donald Trump on Wednesday dismissed the idea of reducing tariffs on Chinese goods, including seafood, as one of the emergency measures being considered to help Americans deal with the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, Bloomberg News reports.

Americans for Free Trade, a group of more than 160 business associations, had requested the measure of relief in a letter, saying, "These tariffs are taxes that Americans pay".

Hours later, in a press conference, Trump replied: “There’s no reason to do that. China is paying us billions and billions of dollars in tariffs. I can’t imagine Americans asking for that.”

Trump added, however: “It could be that China asks for a suspension or something. We’ll see what happens.”

Over the course of his presidency, Trump has imposed tariffs on a total of more than $400 billion in goods, ranging from Chinese apparel imports and French cheeses to European aircraft, the news service reports.

The US paid tariffs of $309.5 million on all of the seafood imported from China between October 2018 and December 2019, Undercurrent News earlier revealed in a special report. Importers of Chinese tilapia, squid and shrimp have been hit the hardest, the special report showed.

As Bloomberg News reports, the tariffs all are absorbed by companies or added to the price tag for US consumers, both of which are now also hurting from business losses related to the coronavirus.

Inside the administration, a battle is brewing over what to do about the tariffs on Chinese goods, the news service reports. Larry Kudlow, the White House economic adviser, in particular, has been vocal about the need for relief, sources familiar with the internal deliberations have reportedly told Bloomberg News, however, a White House spokesperson denied the report.

Others have argued that cutting tariffs would only lead to a bigger trade deficit, an important metric for Trump in his reelection campaign.

Meanwhile, the administration has moved quickly to exempt a range of products that are essential to the coronavirus response in the US, including face masks, gloves and other medical supplies that are solely sourced in China.

Simultaneously, Trump has shifted on his rhetoric in relation to China, from praising Chinese president Xi Jinping for his prompt containment of the virus to blaming the country for its origin, calling it the "Chinese virus".