US President Donald Trump pushed back against suggestions that Friday's pausing of "reciprocal" tariffs was letting countries "off the hook" for their levies on US imports.

Writing on social media, Trump said: "There was no tariff exception announced on Friday."

The president insisted that the electronic goods from China were still subject to the 20% tariffs related to the drug fentanyl - but that they were now in "a different tariff bucket".

The US has long accused Chinese corporations of knowingly supplying groups involved in the creation of the synthetic opioid, which sparked a drug crisis in the country.

Trump said that an upcoming investigation into tariffs and national security would look at electronic goods like semiconductors and "the whole electronics supply chain".

He restated his ambition to bring manufacturing back to America, writing, "What has been exposed is that we need to make products in the United States".

Trump said this was to avoid "being held hostage" by countries, including China which he described as a "hostile trading nation".