AsianFin -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he hasn’t met with any Chinese officials after the Treasury chief confirmed China has not been involved in trade talks with the United States.
Credit：China Central Television
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office officials from China want trade negotiations and the two countries will hold talks “at the right time.” “They want to negotiate, and they want to have a meeting,” Trump said. “And we’ll be meeting with them at the right time.”
Trump and his team these days insisted there are active talks between U.S. and Chinese officials taking place despite Beijing's repeated claims that no ongoing negotiations yet. Pressed by a reporter on Tuesday, Trump said he has not met with anyone from China yet, but claimed Beijing’s economy is “suffering greatly” by not trading with the U.S.
Earlier Tuesday, U.S. Secretary Scott Bessent told lawmakers that negotiations with China over tariffs have not started yet while teasing numerous trade talks that could be done this year. He also reiterated the Trump administration’s guidance that a deal could be announced as soon as this week.
“There are 18 very important trading relationships. We are currently negotiating with 17 of those trading partners,” Bessent testified at a House Appropriations Committee hearing, then made it clear “China, we have not engaged in negotiations with as of yet.”
“I would think that perhaps as early as this week, we will be announcing trade deals with some of our largest trading partners,” Bessent said, without specifying countries.
Bessent predicted the administration would make deals with most of trading partners. "Approximately 97 or 98% of our trade deficit is with 15 countries," Bessent told the House subcommittee members. "Eighteen percent of the countries are major trading partners, and I would be surprised that if we don't have more than 80 or 90% of those wrapped up by the end of the year, and that may be much sooner."
Bessent didn’t specify with which countries the talks are “proceeding very well”, but said “many of our trading partners have approached us with very good offers.” He sought to fend off criticism of Trump’s trade agenda, and argued that measures like tariffs would make other countries lower their trade barriers. “I expect that we can see a substantial reduction in the tariffs that we are being charged, as well as non-tariff barriers — currency manipulation and the subsidies of both labor and capital investment,” he said.
However, Trump on Tuesday appeared to play down trade deals. He said the U.S. doesn’t need to sign deals. “I wish they’d keep, you know, stop asking how many deals are you signing this week,” Trump said in his meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“We don’t have to sign deals, they have to sign deals with us. They want a piece of our market. We don’t want a piece of their market,” the president said.
Bessent on Monday said the U.S. is receiving “very good proposals” from other countries, and "we’re very close to some deals". “I think we could see substantial progress in the coming weeks,” Bessent told CNBC when talking about progress in trade negotiations. Then he reiterated he thinks the current total tariffs are unsustainable, and the 125% of tariff level is equivalent to an embargo.
Bessent insisted China would suffer more than U.S. amid the intensifying trade war. The president suggested he’s getting annoyed with expectations that he’ll sign deals soon, and he’d like to keep current tariffs in place.“We’re reading every day what’s happening with factories in China. From an academic point of view, I can tell you that (in) the history of trade battles, we are the deficit country, the surplus country always has the most to lose,” said Bessent.
