The Foreign Ministry of China has responded to US President Donald Trump’s statement on the trade deal with China.
“US can’t say it want to reach an agreement with China and on the other hands keeps exerting extreme pressure,” Reuters reported quoting the Foreign Ministry.
Previously, President Donald Trump proposed to be “very nice” to China during any trade talks initiated between the two countries, and the tariffs would decline if they could reach a deal, indicating a change from his tough stance on Beijing amid market volatility.
“It will come down substantially but it won’t be zero,” Trump said Tuesday in Washington. His comments come after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the deadlock between the two economies was unsustainable. Trump further said, “we’re going to be very nice and they’re going to be very nice, and we’ll see what happens.”
He mentioned that there isn’t any reason for him to “play hardball” with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Trump assured that during discussions, he wouldn’t speak about COVID-19. The White House in a recently launched a website stating that the virus came from a lab in China, reported Bloomberg.
The possibility of a trade deal and Trump‘s latest comments come after the US stocks and Treasuries have crashed over the sweeping tariffs announced on April 2, which were later paused for 90 days and 145% tariffs were imposed on China.
In response to US tariffs, China is reaching out to other countries, asking them not to enter into a trade deal with the US, the report said. While meeting Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on Wednesday, Xi Jinping emphasised that the tariffs and trade wars are affecting the rights and interests of all countries.
Meanwhile, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told UK and Austria that China not only aims in “safeguarding its own interests, but protecting international rules and multilateral trade system.”
China’s Premier Li Qiang reportedly wrote a letter to Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba seeking a coordinated response to US tariffs.
(With inputs from Bloomberg)
First Published
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23 Apr 2025, 01:14 PM IST
