Trump Seeks 'Fair Deal' in Trade Talks with China Amid Conflicting Claims
On Thursday, China denied reports that it is engaging in active tariff talks with the United States, contradicting directly President Donald Trump's latest assurances of progress in trade negotiations.
In direct contradiction of Trump's assertion that relations with China were "going fine" and that tariffs on Chinese imports could be lowered from their present rate of 145%, Chinese officials said no such talks were being held. Guo Jiakun, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said, "For all I know, China and the US are not conducting any consultation or negotiation on tariffs, let alone making a deal.
Commerce Ministry spokesman He Yadong reiterated this, saying, "Any statements on the progress of China-US trade talks are as futile as attempting to grasp the wind. There is no factual foundation." He again said China is willing to communicate, but added that it should be based on mutual respect and equality.
In spite of China's denunciation, President Trump continued to assert that negotiations were ongoing. Asked about the Chinese response, he said in a vague manner, "They had a meeting this morning. it doesn't matter who they is."
Contradictory signals were sent out from the Trump administration during the course of the day. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had spoken of a "very successful" meeting with South Korea and had suggested that a trade agreement might be agreed next week. Trump later contradicted this, saying it was "physically impossible" to talk to more than one country at a time and instead implied that trade agreements would be more a matter of setting prices, some countries being charged more tariffs on account of unfair practices.
Today, the Trump administration has put 145% tariffs on Chinese imports, and Beijing retaliated with 125% tariffs on US imports. Other countries have been granted temporary tariff exemptions except China, resulting in higher tariffs, export bans on rare earth, and filing of WTO cases against the US.
China has made it sufficiently clear that any negotiations have to be accompanied by the elimination of all US-imposed tariffs. According to him, "If the United States truly wishes to resolve the problem, it must scrap all one-sided tariff policies towards China and settle differences through fair dialogue."
In spite of the continued tensions, Trump took a softer tone on Tuesday, saying he wanted to be "very nice" to Chinese President Xi Jinping and that both countries could "live together very happily and ideally work together."
