Washington: President Trump says he wants a ‘fair’ trade agreement with China, but it is still unclear when the two sides will break the stoves over the customs.
In a talk with journalists in Washington on Wednesday, Trump said conversations with Beijing are in progress and that both countries could reach agreement. But the top US officials gave no clear answers to how or when the current tariffs could be reduced.
Trump told journalists that his country would have a “fair deal with China,” adding that “everything is active” when asked if Washington was talking to Beijing.
How soon the duty can be lowered “depends on them,” Trump said, referring to Beijing, even when he claimed he will come together “very well” with Chinese President Xi Jinping and hope they can reach agreement.
Merchant voltages between the world’s two largest economies have risen as Trump ramped charges on imports from China this year and introduced an additional 145 percent duty on many products over practice that Washington has considered unreasonable and other problems.
Beijing, for his part, has reciprocated with new 125 percent tariffs on US goods.
Despite signals that Washington is looking against a fair agreement, the state of the discussions remains murky.
When asked if there is direct us contact with China about trade, Trump said, “Every day.”
Even earlier Wednesday, US Finance Minister Scott Bessent journalists said that both countries are not yet “talking” when it comes to lowering customs.
“I think both sides are waiting to talk to the other,” he said at an event on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank’s spring meetings in Washington.
He added that there is no one -sided offer from Trump to cut tasks on Chinese goods.
‘An embargo’
Bessent said that the staggeringly high tariffs that both countries have imposed on each other’s goods must come down before negotiations can occur.
“I don’t think both sides think the current customs levels are sustainable, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they went down in a mutual way,” he added to the sidelines of an Institute of International Finance Forum.
“This is equivalent to an embargo, and a break between the two countries in trade does not fit anyone’s interest,” Bessent said, emphasizing that “de-shaning of both sides is possible.”
But he gave no time frame of how fast bilateral conversations could take place.
“It’s both a blessing and a curse that the strongest relationship is at the top,” Bessent said, referring to Trump’s bond with the Chinese counterpart XI. However, with “any de-scaling, the negotiations would not start at the top.”
While Trump has quickly rolled sharp tariffs in different countries and sectors, he has also been quick to introduce certain exceptions -most recently a temporary exposure to tech products such as smartphones and chipmaking tools.
He could extend the cut, the financial hour reported Wednesday and said Trump could exempt car parts from some tariffs on Chinese import-together with them on steel and aluminum.
On Wednesday afternoon, Trump said he was not considering changes in US auto tariffs, but noticed that Chanada charges could rise in terms of cars.
Separately, Bessent said Wednesday that he did not have an attitude about whether the president had the authority to shoot Federal Reserve -President Jerome Powell if he wanted to.
He suggested Trump’s earlier comment that the “termination” of Powell could not come fast enough can also refer to the end of the Fed Chief’s period.
Earlier Wednesday, Bessent said in a speech that Peking’s export-dependent economic model is “unsustainable” and “not only harms China but the whole world.”
He emphasized us concerns about trade balances, as the Trump administration says it hopes to tackle through sweeping tariffs.
But Bessent maintained that “America at first does not mean America alone.”
He insisted that the movements of the administration are largely a call for deeper cooperation and mutual respect among trading partners while aiming for political elections from other countries, as he said, has eroded American production and put its security at risk.
