The US and China’s endless clash regarding trade negotiations maintain contradicting narratives as President Donald Trump continues to defend his 145% tariffs on the Asian country. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent previously called the tariff wars between America and China “unsustainable,” saying that a “de-escalation” of the conflict was coming soon. However, China firmly stands on the claims that they are not negotiating on tariffs with the US.
As a result, Trump resorted to call China the leading candidate for the “chief-ripper-offer” on trade, according to CNBC. While downplaying the economic impacts of the US tariff war, he said, “We’ve been ripped off by every country in the world, but China I would say is the leading… candidate for the chief-ripper-offer,” during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.
Trump counters US dependence on China
On Wednesday, Trump even slammed analysts and other experts and their warnings of a looming economic collapse in light of the tariffs, saying, “Somebody said, ‘oh, the shelves are gonna be empty.’ Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more.”
Despite China having been a major source of US imports, the POTUS argued that its doesn’t need to rely on the country as much as it has. “They have ships that are loaded up with stuff, much of which, not all of it, but much of which we don’t need,” he said.
Even when confronted by a reporter at the White House if he had directly been in conversations with the Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump did not fully divulge the truth. Spilling out the bare minimum, he has continued to maintain that US-China talks are on and both countries are “doing fine.”
On the contrary, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Guo Jiakun, flipped the response, denying any ongoing negotiations between Beijing and Washington. “As far as I know, there have not been any calls between the two presidents recently,” the spokesman said.
First US trade deal reached?
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick hinted that the Trump administration had locked its first trade deal without disclosing the country’s name. “I have a deal done, done, done, done, but I need to wait for their prime minister and their parliament to give its approval, which I expect shortly,” he told CNBC.
On the China resolution front, he said he was not involved in those negotiations as those belonged in Scott Bessent’s “portfolio.” When asked about Lutnick’s remarks on Fox Business, the treasury secretary said, “I’m not going to get ahead of the president. Nothing’s done until President Trump announces it. … So we should wait to hear from President Trump over the next couple of days,” sparking more fears of uncertainty.