US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are likely to talk on the phone soon about trade and tariffs, the White House has said, reported BBC. However, China has not confirmed this development yet.
According to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, the two leaders will likely hold the talks as soon as this week, following the rising tension over violating tariff and trade restriction agreements.
Leavitt mentioned that, as usual, the White House will share details of the call afterward.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also told CBS that the two leaders are expected to talk very soon about trade issues, including disagreements over key minerals and China’s export rules.
Trump had said on Friday that he was confident a conversation with Xi would happen. But Chinese officials had earlier said there hadn’t been any recent contact between the two global leaders of economic powerhouses.
Meanwhile, the US Trade Representative has extended tariff exclusions for some Chinese goods, including solar manufacturing equipment, until August 31. This gives more time for ongoing trade talks with China.
Bessent, who led earlier trade talks in Geneva that paused a trade war between the US and China, told Fox News that not much progress has been made since then.
A temporary agreement between the US and China to lower high tariffs for 90 days led to strong gains in global markets. However, it didn’t solve deeper concerns that the US has with China’s export-heavy economy.
In a legal development, a US trade court ruled that Trump had gone beyond his legal powers when he set most of the tariffs on Chinese and other foreign goods. But a federal appeals court quickly stepped in the next day to allow the tariffs to stay in place for now, while the government appeals the ruling.
The court gave deadlines of June 5 for those challenging the tariffs to respond and June 9 for the government to reply.