Former President Donald Trump asserted that the US and China were negotiating. This time, Beijing vehemently rejected this claim. On Tuesday, for example, Trump said that he had already spoken to representatives from China that day and that negotiations were “going well.” Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman He Yadong shot down that claim. He announced that no new trade negotiations were happening between the two countries.
The stage for this most recent round of claims and counterclaims is an ever shifting landscape of tariffs and trade policies. In March, Trump slapped 20% tariffs on China. He followed this by imposing 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico to more narrowly focus on fentanyl trafficking. Recently, he has suggested going ahead with big cuts to tariffs on China, but walked it back to say they “won’t be zero.” This announcement is made amid rising tensions between the two countries.
In retaliation for U.S. tariffs, China has fought back with their own tariffs, hitting U.S. products with 125% tariffs. In retaliation, the U.S. has imposed 145% import duties on Chinese goods. In place of these tariffs, Beijing has installed a gauntlet of non-tariff barriers. These measures range from limiting rare earth exports to the U.S. to suspending aircraft purchases from Boeing.
He Yadong emphasized the lack of negotiations, stating, “As the authority responsible for foreign trade and economic relations, I would like to emphasise that there are currently no trade negotiations taking place between China and the United States. Any claims about progress in China-US trade talks are purely speculative and have no factual basis.”
Regardless of this denial, Trump has not given up hope on getting Kim to the table. After a recent meeting at the White House, Norway’s Prime Minister provided reporters with an optimistic assessment. He announced that he had a meeting with Chinese officials that very morning. He took to Truth Social to criticize China for not completing aircraft purchases from Boeing, stating, “Boeing should default China for not taking the beautifully finished planes that China committed to purchase. This is a minuscule sample of what China has done it’s dumping into the USA for decades…
This mismatch in messaging has understandably resulted in confusion and generated volatility in the financial markets. Trump’s surprise reversal on tariffs set off a panic rally in stock markets around the world. Today’s rally is the fourth straight day of rising markets. Given the history of bad blood, it seems any settlement could be years away.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has been hard at work on this renminbi infrastructure with both countries. So even if formal negotiations have ceased, negotiations continue in every back channel. Noting that China has been reading foreign media coverage reporting on the issue of China-U.S. trade talks, He Yadong confirmed this.
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