By Michael Martina and Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested China initiated upcoming senior-level trade talks between the two countries and said he was not willing to cut U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods to get Beijing to the negotiating table.
The U.S. announced on Tuesday that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet with China’s top economic official on Saturday in Switzerland, marking an initial step in potential negotiations over a blistering trade war.
Beijing had adopted fiery rhetoric as tensions with Washington ratcheted up, repeatedly saying it would not engage in negotiations unless the U.S. withdrew its tariffs. Its Commerce Ministry had suggested it was the U.S. side that had signaled a desire to hold talks.
“They said we initiated? Well, I think they ought to go back and study their files,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question at a White House event where his ambassador to China, David Perdue, was sworn into office.
Asked if he was willing to reduce tariffs to get China to negotiate, Trump said: “No.”
“We were losing with China, on trade, a trillion dollars a year – more, actually,” Trump said. “You know what we’re losing now? Nothing. That’s not bad.”
The planned talks come after weeks of escalating tensions that have seen duties on goods imports between the world’s two largest economies soar well beyond 100%, amounting to what Bessent on Tuesday described as the equivalent of a trade embargo.
The impasse, along with Trump’s decision last month to slap sweeping duties on dozens of other countries, has upended supply chains, roiled financial markets and stoked fears of a sharp downturn in global growth.
Bessent said after the meeting announcement that the talks were about “de-escalation.”
At the White House event, Trump said he and Perdue, a former Republican U.S. senator from Georgia, would “work together very closely” on U.S. relations with China.
Perdue touted his personal relationship with Trump, something that could raise his stock in Beijing if Chinese officials assess he has a direct channel to the president.
“I want the world to know that I know this man personally. He loves this country, and I am glad to be your man in China,” Perdue said.
In nominating Perdue, Trump had said he would be instrumental in implementing a “productive working relationship with China’s leaders.” During his confirmation hearing in early April, Perdue said the U.S. approach to China must be “nuanced, nonpartisan, and strategic.”
Last year, however, Perdue condemned Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “modern-day emperor,” writing in an essay that Beijing wanted to “destroy capitalism and democracy” and the U.S.-led world order.
(Reporting by Michael Martina, Jeff Mason and Jarrett Renshaw in Washington; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Andrea Ricci)
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