China ‘firmly rejects’ US claim of violating tariff deal; Trump top adviser says tariffs ‘not going away
China has firmly rejected “unreasonable accusations” made by the US that it broke a tariff deal, ahead of a call between Presidents Trump and Xi.
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China said it “firmly rejects” claims by the United States that it had violated a deal struck last month to lower crippling tariffs between the world’s two largest economies.
Washington “has made bogus charges and unreasonably accused China of violating the consensus, which is seriously contrary to the facts,” Beijing’s commerce ministry said, adding
“China firmly rejects these unreasonable accusations”.
A logjam in the trade talks between the United States and China could be broken once Mr Trump and Xi Jinping speak, US officials said – a conversation they said could happen soon.
Mr Trump has accused Beijing of violating a deal reached last month in Geneva to temporarily lower staggeringly high tariffs the world’s two biggest economies had imposed on each other, in a pause to last 90 days.
China’s slow-walking on export license approvals for rare earths and other elements needed to make cars and chips have fuelled US frustration, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday — a concern since confirmed by US officials.
But US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent seemed to take the pressure down a notch on Sunday, telling CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the gaps could soon be bridged.
“I’m confident that when President Trump and Party Chairman Xi have a call that this will be ironed out,” Mr Bessent said, however noting that China was “withholding some of the products that they agreed to release during our agreement.”
When asked if rare earths were one of those products, Mr Bessent said, “Yes.”
“Maybe it’s a glitch in the Chinese system. Maybe it’s intentional. We’ll see after the president speaks with” Xi, he said.
On when a Trump-Xi call could take place, Mr Bessent said: “I believe we will see something very soon.”
Kevin Hassett, director of the White House’s National Economic Council told America’s ABC News that the call could happen “this week” but that he had no confirmation of a scheduled time.
Since Mr Trump returned to the presidency, he has slapped sweeping tariffs on most US trading partners, with especially high rates on Chinese imports.
New tit for tat levies on both sides reached three digits before the de-escalation this month, where Washington agreed to temporarily reduce additional tariffs on Chinese imports from 145 per cent to 30 per cent.
China, meanwhile, lowered its added duties from 125 per cent to 10 per cent.
Separate from the China deal, Mr Trump said on Friday he would double sector-specific tariffs on steel and aluminium to 50 per cent starting June 4.
Mr Hassett said China’s dumping of low-cost steel was hurting US industry — which in turn was hindering US military preparedness.
“The bottom line is that we’ve got to be ready in case things don’t happen the way we want, because if we have cannons but not cannonballs, then we can’t fight a war,” Mr Hassett told the This Week program.
“And if we don’t have steel, then the US isn’t ready, and we’re not preparing ourselves for something,” he added.
“We have to have a steel industry that’s ready for American defence.”
TOP TRUMP ADVISER VOWS: TRUMP TARIFFS NOT GOING AWAY
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Donald Trump’s “tariffs are not going away” and the US President is not planning to extend the 90-day pause on some of his steepest rates when it expires in July.
Mr Lutnick downplayed the impact of legal uncertainty over the tariffs during an interview with Fox News Sunday, saying the talks were ongoing.
“You can’t listen to silly people making silly comments,” Mr Lutnick said.
“All of the countries that are negotiating with us understand the power of Donald Trump and his ability to protect the American worker.”
In response to the ongoing court challenges, Mr Lutnick said: “Tariffs are not going away”.
He added that the US “could sign lots of deals now” but the Trump administration is working to “make them better”.
“You’re going to see over the next couple of weeks, really, first class deals for the American worker,” he said.
Mr Lutnick said Mr Trump has many other authorities that even in the “weird and unusual circumstance where this was taken away, we just bring on another or another or another.”
– with AFP
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Originally published as China ‘firmly rejects’ US claim of violating tariff deal; Trump top adviser says tariffs ‘not going away