AsianFin -- U.S. President Donald Trump vowed he would not considering lowering tariffs on China in order to kick off trade negotiations with the world’s second largest economy ahead of the high-level trade talks at weekends.
Credit：Xinhua News Agency
Asked if he would pull back on the duties on Chinese imports, which totaled to a steep level of 145% since Trump returned to the White House, to initiate talks with China, Trump responded with a succinct answer:“No.”
Trump on Wednesday in the Oval Office sent signals contradicting China’s assertion. He suggested it is Chinese, instead of American, who requested the talks over trade. “I think they ought to go back and study their files,” the president said.
The United States has repeatedly expressed its desire to hold negotiations with China in recent days, and the upcoming meeting between Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will take place at the request of the U.S. side, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Earlier Wednesday.
Lin at a regular press briefing noted China firmly opposes the indiscriminate imposition of tariffs by the United States and that its position on the matter remains unchanged. "China will firmly safeguard its legitimate interests and uphold international fairness and justice," he said.
China announced late Tuesday Vice Premier He will have a high-level meeting with the U.S. on economic and trade affairs during his visit to Switzerland from May 9 to 12. The Trump administration confirmed the Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet with their Chinese counterparts to discuss economic and trade matter in meetings in Geneva this week.
Trump’s remarks on Wednesday echoed his position these days. The president said in an interview with NBC that he will “at some point” reduce tariffs on China, though he will not make the first move.
“At some point, I’m going to lower them because otherwise you could never do business with them,” Trump said in NBC’s “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker”, which was taped on Friday and aired on Sunday. “They want to do business very much … their economy is collapsing.” Trump responded “no” when asked if he is not going to drop the tariffs to get China to the negotiation table.
Trump on Sunday told reporter aboard Air Force One that the U.S. was meeting with many countries, including China, on trade deals, and he has no plans to speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping this week. But he signaled that his aides are having conversations with Chinese counterparts on “different things”.
Trump said his main priority with China was to secure a “fair” trade deal, while repeating that China had been "ripping us for many years" on global trade. He acknowledge he had "very tough with China", but believed Beijing wanted to strike a deal since the country is experiencing economic pains.
"We've gone cold turkey," Trump said. "That means we're not losing a trillion dollars ... because we're not doing business with them right now. And they want to make a deal. They want to make a deal very badly. We'll see how that all turns out, but it's got to be a fair deal."
Trump last month expressed his optimism about a trade deal with China even though he decided to hike tariffs on China to 125%, which drawing Beijing's move to raise their levies on U.S. to the same level. “I believe we’re going to have a deal with China,” said the president on April 17, adding that an agreement could happen in the next three to four weeks.
CNN last month cited senior U.S. officials that Trump has told his team China must be the first to make the move, as the White House believes it is Beijing that has chosen to retaliate and further escalate the trade war. It was reported that Trump’s team has conveyed that stance for about two months, telling Chinese officials that Xi should request a call with Trump, but Beijing has repeatedly refused to arrange a leader-level phone call.
