President Trump said on Wednesday that he would not lower the high rates for goods from China prior to conversations this weekend between the American and Chinese officials, despite Requests from Beijing To do this.
Asked by reporters in the Oval Office whether he would lower the rates for Chinese exports – which are now at least 145 percent – to start conversations, Mr. Trump was concise: “No”
He also implied that the Chinese had been the ones who apply for trade discussions, opponent of statements from China that the two parties met at the request of the Americans. “I think they should go back and study their files,” the president said.
Scott Bessent, the Minister of Finance, and Jamieson Greer, the trade representative of the United States, are planning to meet Chinese officials in Geneva on Saturday and Sunday to discuss trade and economic affairs. The countries are locked up in an impasse. High rates have hurt companies in both countries, but neither of the government has looked like it admits to the other by asking a meeting.
Chinese officials say that they have little clarity from the American side about which policy changes Mr Trump can interfere, and it is unclear whether the two countries will conclude any form of trade agreement.
On Wednesday Mr. Trump said that China should “stop Fentanyl to come in,” and he gave the former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. The fault for not maintaining an agreement that Mr Trump signed with China during his first term.
Mr. Trump spoke from the Oval Office as he swore in David Perdue, the new ambassador in China. A former senator from Georgia, Mr. Perdue is also a former chief executive of Reebok and Dollar General, and the business world has seen him as someone who could be a moderating force for the relationship between the American China.
“I chose him a long time ago, but it happened to be on a pretty important date,” said the president.
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