‘They had a meeting this morning,’ the president told reporters.
President Donald Trump rejected China’s claims that the two nations had not engaged in talks on trade amid an ongoing tariff war between the two.
“They had a meeting this morning,” Trump told reporters, without specifying who was negotiating on behalf of the United States in the meeting. “It doesn’t matter who ’they’ is. We may reveal it later, but they had meetings this morning, and we’ve been meeting with China.”
China, meanwhile, has said that such talks are not taking place.
On April 24, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told reporters at a press conference that the Trump administration’s claims that talks were ongoing were “false news.”
Guo said the two countries “have not conducted consultations or negotiations on tariffs, let alone reached an agreement.”
Currently, the United States and China are in a de facto mutual trade embargo after Trump imposed 145 percent tariffs on China, prompting the adversary to respond with a 125 percent tariff.
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Trump also signaled some openness to softening his stance on China’s tariff rates on April 22, telling reporters that the United States would be “very nice” and saying that the final tariff rate imposed on China “will not be anywhere near” its current 145 percent level.
The next day, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Trump hasn’t proposed reducing U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports on a unilateral basis, responding to speculation that the president is seeking to de-escalate trade tensions with Beijing.
“I don’t think either side believes that the current tariff levels are sustainable, so I would not be surprised if they went down in a mutual way,” Bessent said.
On April 24, Trump commented on China’s refusal to take in planes built by Boeing as a result of the tariffs.
“This is just a small example of what China has done to the USA, for years. … And, by the way, Fentanyl continues to pour into our Country from China, through Mexico and Canada, killing hundreds of thousands of our people, and it better stop, NOW!”
According to the White House, some Chinese products, including electric vehicles and syringes, face tariffs as high as 245 percent because of the combined effect of reciprocal levies, tariffs imposed in response to fentanyl precursors from China, and Section 301 tariffs imposed during both the Trump and Biden administrations, which range from about 7.5 percent to 100 percent.
Emel Akan contributed to this report.
Original News Source Link – Epoch Times
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