US President Donald Trump stated that negotiations are ongoing with China to agree on a trade deal, further stating that Chinese President Xi Jinping personally called him over tariffs. Speaking to Time magazine in an interview released on Friday (April 25), Trump stated, “He’s called. And I don’t think that’s a sign of weakness on his behalf,” but he did not reveal when the call was made.
Trump indicated that an agreement could be near at hand, predicting tariff deals with some of his trading partners would be reached within “three or four weeks.
But the government in Beijing has a different view. Beijing officials have refused any active trade negotiations with Washington, insisting that the US would first have to roll back tariffs to clear the decks for talks. “There are no economic and trade negotiations between China and the United States,” China’s Ministry of Commerce repeated.
Contrary to these public declarations, there are indications China is quietly rolling back its retaliatory tariffs. In response to the US’s 145% tariffs on Chinese imports last month, China retaliated with up to 125% duties on American imports. However, Chinese customs officials have started exempting eight types of US semiconductors except for memory chips from these tariffs, reports indicate. Firms can even be refunded if duties have already been collected.
Further exemptions will follow, including US medical equipment and chemicals like ethane, both of which are critical to Chinese health and manufacturing industries, Bloomberg reported.
Trump also foretold two major geopolitical developments during the interview, the accession of Saudi Arabia into the Abraham Accords, and the likelihood of negotiating a new deal with Iran.
Washington and Beijing’s duelling versions of events underscore the underlying tensions and possible backstage diplomacy that have the potential to determine the course of future global trade relations.
