Two US ministers in President Donald Trump’s administration made conflicting statements today, Sunday, the start of negotiations with China on customs duties, as the Republican President emphasized.
Last week, the Trump administration indicated its openness to calm the trade war between the two largest economies in the world, which raised fears of recession. Trump said that there are ongoing talks with China regarding customs duties and that he spoke to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. But Beijing denies any trade talks with Washington.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Besent, a major party in the American commercial talks with multiple countries, said today, Sunday, that his talks with his Chinese counterpart last week during the meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington did not address the issue of customs duties.
In a separate television interview, US Agricultural Minister Brock Rollins said that the United States is in daily talks with China on customs duties.
“We are in daily talks with China, along with other countries that came to the 99 or 100 negotiating table,” she added in statements to CNN.
In response to a question during an interview with IBC, whether the United States and China were holding talks on customs duties, Bessent said he had not discussed this issue.
“I contacted my counterparts, but the discussion focused more on traditional issues such as financial stability and early warnings surrounding the global economy. I do not know if President Trump spoke to President Xi (Jinping).
Besent said last week that the customs negotiations with Beijing would be “arduous”, but he did not provide a timetable for any possible agreement with China.
He added that reaching a trade agreement may take months, but indicated the possibility of reaching an initial agreement soon, which would prevent customs duties from escalating to maximum levels.
Trump announced the imposition of customs duties, some of which were confused often, on many countries, including Canada, Mexico and China, which sparked unprecedented fluctuations in the markets and negatively affected the confidence of investors in American assets.
Beijing condemns
On Friday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi condemned the customs duties and described it as “the utterance of selfishness”, speaking about the high identification imposed by Trump on Beijing.
The Chinese Foreign Minister told his Uzbek counterpart, Bakhtiar Saeedov, that “some countries” resort to “pressure and coercion, and unjustified commercial wars … This is the end of selfishness and does not harm except with their credibility.”
China and the United States, the two largest economies in the world, are fighting a growing trade war that ignited Trump’s imposition of exorbitant customs duties on Chinese goods of 145%on many products.
Beijing responded by imposing a 125%reprisal duties on American goods.
China said on Saturday that it had not had any talks with the United States on commercial issues, despite President Donald Trump’s claim to receive a phone call from the Chinese president.
On Thursday, the Chinese Ministry of Trade denied the conduct of Beijing and Washington, economic or commercial negotiations.
