United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said it will be China’s responsibility to ink a trade deal that would lower the U.S.’ high tariffs, despite Chinese officials saying they are not seeking to negotiate.
U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed 145% tariffs on Chinese goods in recent weeks. While Bessent and Trump have claimed that the administration is negotiating a deal with China, China’s government has said the two countries are not engaged in tariff discussions.
“I believe that it’s up to China to de-escalate, because they sell five times more to us than we sell to them, and so these 120%, 145% tariffs are unsustainable,” said Bessent.
According to Bessent, he spoke to his Chinese counterparts during last week’s International Monetary Fund meetings on “traditional things like financial stability, global economic early warnings”, rather than directly discussing tariffs.
China has repeatedly denied that it is negotiating with the U.S. Its Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Commerce have said that China has not been in contact with the U.S. on tariffs, and that Chinese President Xi Jinping has not spoken to Trump about the issue, as Trump claimed.
Bessent also said that the administration aims to sign a trade deal with India, with Indian imports facing a 26% tariff in the U.S. “I would guess that India would be one of the first trade deals we would sign.”
Other nations, however, have said they are not pursuing a trade deal. French officials have said that they will not seek a free trade agreement with the U.S. until it withdraws its tariffs on French goods.
The U.S. imposed a blanket tariff of 10% on all nations earlier this month, with many countries facing a higher rate. While the administration agreed to a 90-day pause on these tariffs to encourage negotiations, Trump has said there will likely not be another pause if these deals are not completed.
Trump said in an interview with TIME last week that he had “made 200 deals” with a variety of countries to lower tariffs, though no trade deals with any country have been announced.
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