Bill Gates has delivered a scathing critique of Donald Trump’s trade policy during a CNN interview, warning that the former president’s approach to tariffs has created "a lot of uncertainty" and risks undermining investment and innovation in the United States. The Microsoft co-founder made this comment during a conversation with Fareed Zakaria on Fareed Zakaria GPS, hours before news broke of a major de-escalation in the US-China trade war.

Zakaria asked the tech mogul: "These tariffs we’ve just imposed on ourselves — how damaging do you think it is?" Gates responded: "The big concern I have is we’ve created a lot of uncertainty. If you’re going to build a new factory, you need to understand the policies for the next 20 years, not just the next two days or even four years."

He continued: "In a time of AI, where labour substitution — both white collar and blue collar — is going to start to tinge the economy, I think it’s a bad time to start to interject so much uncertainty. This is not an agreed set of things or a carefully discussed set of things."

Gates admitted he often feels left in the dark as major shifts take place under the Trump administration, questioning: "What's going to happen with pharmaceuticals or electronics? I open the paper every day wondering. I do worry that uncertainty means that investments don’t take place."

The businessman is a huge advocate for global cooperation and economic development, and was not impressed with the impact Trump’s tariffs could have had on the world’s poorest nations. "Briefly there were gigantic tariffs on really poor African countries," Gates added. "I don’t see what the benefit of that would have been. The potential tariffs would have been particularly bad for these poor countries."

When asked about tech bans imposed on China, Gates did not hold back. "Oh absolutely," he said when asked whether such policies had backfired. "They have forced the Chinese in forms of chip manufacturing and everything to go full speed ahead."

His comments come as the Trump administration announced a significant breakthrough in trade talks with China. In a joint statement over the weekend, both nations agreed to slash the heavy tariffs that had defined Trump’s Liberation Day trade war.

The agreement will see both countries reduce their import levies by 115 percent for 90 days, with US tariffs on Chinese goods now cut to 30 percent and Chinese tariffs on American exports dropping to 10 percent. The move sparked an uptick in global stock markets and has been interpreted as a major blow to Trump’s initial trade plans.

Despite acknowledging the negative effects these tariffs have had on the stability of tech companies in the US, Bates shared the upbeat observation that "there is a lot of resilience in the US economy" and said he believes job numbers were not affected by the trade tensions.