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President Donald Trump said his administration was talking with China on trade, after Beijing denied the existence of negotiations on a deal and demanded the US revoke all unilateral tariffs.
“They had a meeting this morning,” Trump said Thursday during a meeting with Norway’s prime minister when a reporter asked about the Chinese statement.
Pressed on which administration officials were involved in discussions, the US president said, “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.”
The exchange exposed the ongoing disconnect between Washington and Beijing, as President Xi Jinping’s government maintains a defiant stance despite Trump’s recent suggestion he could lower tariffs on China.
Earlier in the day Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman He Yadong had dismissed speculation that progress had been made in bilateral communications.
“I want to emphasize that there are currently no economic and trade negotiations between China and the United States,” He said at a regular briefing in Beijing Thursday, adding that “any reports on development in talks are groundless and have no factual basis.”
The US should “show sincerity” if it wants to make a deal, He said. “The US should respond to rational voices in the international community and within its own borders and thoroughly remove all unilateral tariffs imposed on China, if it really wants to solve the problem.”
The remarks suggest that Trump’s comments this week signaling that he could lower tariffs on China — which currently stand at 145% for most goods — will not be enough to de-escalate tensions. The US leader said Wednesday that “everything’s active” when asked if he was engaging with China and that Beijing was “going to do fine” once talks had settled.
Trump has tried to get Xi on the phone a number of times since he returned to office, but the Chinese leader has, so far, resisted. Beijing wants to see a number of steps from Washington before it will agree to trade negotiations, including showing more respect and naming a point person for the dialogue, Bloomberg News previously reported.
Other conditions include a more consistent US position and a willingness to address China’s concerns around American sanctions and Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing has vowed to claim someday, by force if necessary.
Trump shifted his tone yet again on Thursday, criticizing Beijing for refusing to take deliveries of Boeing Co. jets and for its role in the trade of illegal fentanyl. The US imposed 20% tariffs on Chinese imports tied to fentanyl before slapping them with an additional 125% duty.
“Boeing should default China for not taking the beautifully finished planes that China committed to purchase,” Trump posted on social media. “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!”
China has responded to Trump’s volatile tariff moves with caution, with Beijing calling the high levels of levies “meaningless.” Authorities have also warned other countries against striking deals with the US that could hurt its interests.
Highlighting how the strain in trade ties is spilling into other areas of the relationship, China’s Defense Ministry on Thursday blamed the “biased” view of “some individuals in the US” for hindering engagement between the Chinese and US militaries.
Policy Support
The focus now is on what policy support Beijing will unleash to shield the world’s No. 2 economy from the impact of tariffs on the export engine that drove some 40% of growth in the first quarter. Hints on stimulus could come as soon as this week, when the decision-making Politburo is expected to huddle, with its April meeting traditionally focused on the economy.
It’s “too early” for Beijing to go all in on policy support, according to Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie Group. “After all, it’s much easier for Trump to walk back his tariff threat than it is for Beijing to walk back its stimulus announcement,” he added.
Beijing has typically dispensed stimulus only as it’s needed to protect the nation’s annual growth goal. With first quarter expansion coming in at 5.4% — above the about 5% target for 2025 — policymakers might feel they have room to wait.
The remarks from China’s commerce and defense ministries came hours after Pan Gongsheng, governor of the People’s Bank of China, warned of the threat ongoing frictions posed to trust in the global economic system, during Chinese officials’ first trip to the US since Trump unleashed his biggest tariffs yet.
“All parties should strengthen cooperation and make efforts to prevent the global economy from sliding into a track of ‘high friction, low trust,’” Pan said at a Group of 20 meeting in Washington on Wednesday, according to a social media post by state broadcaster China Central Television.
Pan is one of the leading members of a Chinese delegation attending the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank this week in the US capital, where discussions involving the US, EU and other G20 members are also taking place.
The events are expected to provide the first opportunity for Chinese economic officials to meet with Trump’s team in person since he drastically hiked tariffs on Chinese imports earlier this month, before any formal negotiations to cool trade tensions.
However, neither side has announced any bilateral meetings despite Trump’s move to soften his tone on tariffs that are expected to dent growth of the world’s second-largest economy.
There are “no winners in trade wars” and China will remain open to the outside world and firmly support free trade and the multilateral trading system, Pan said, according to the report.
--With assistance from Lucille Liu, Paul Abelsky, Josh Wingrove, Hadriana Lowenkron and James Mayger.
(Updates sixth paragraph with more details of Chinese statement.)
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