China Denies Having Trade War Negotiation Meetings, Trump States Otherwise
While there have been positive developments regarding the loosening of the U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports, the state of negotiations to finally solve this trade war is still uncertain. President Trump stated that there were meetings addressing the issue, but China has outright denied that these ever happened.
The trade war caused by the recent hikes in the tariffs that the U.S. collects from imports from several countries seems unlikely to end anytime soon. While President Trump has given hints about a possible flexibilization of the tariff regime against China, the two countries have recently contradicted about the state of potential negotiations to deal with the issue.
Early this Thursday, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, Lin Jian, noted that China was not in any talks processes with the U.S. Via social media. Jian clarified that the two nations were “not having any consultation or negotiation on tariffs, still less reaching a deal.”
Furthermore, Jian stressed that the U.S. launched the trade war first and that China would combat the U.S. government’s position. “We will fight, if fight we must. Our doors are open, if the US wants to talk. Dialogue and negotiation must be based on equality, respect, and mutual benefit,” he declared.
Nonetheless, the Trump administration affirmed that there were ongoing talks regarding tariffs. Trump himself stated that undetermined parties had a meeting that same morning.
Trump declared:
“They had a meeting this morning. 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.”
Reuters reported that an unidentified White House official confirmed Trump’s version, revealing that there had been low-level in-person talks and phone communication between Washington and Beijing this week.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent remarked on Wednesday that these tariff levels were equivalent to an embargo and called the current state of affairs “unsustainable.” This prompted a positive reaction from markets, which took these statements as a sign of a moment to disarm the stalemate surrounding the trade war.
Read more: Trade War: Tit-for-Tat Tariffs Show Limits of Unilateral Action, Web3 Leaders Say
