During today’s Congressional Oversight hearing, Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed to Congress that the U.S., including Trump has had no talks with China relating to trade are tariffs.
In April, Trump told Time magazine that he had had many talks with China’s Pres. Xi, intimating these talks were regarding trade and his tariffs.
Monday I wrote Bessent admitted to CNBC that no trade talks with China had happened and Tuesday he confirmed it.
Chairman Jolly began the hearing and asked Sec Bessent where we are .
JOLLY: Where do you see the U.S. with respect to tariffs and the overarching strategy?
Do you anticipate all trade deals being bilateral or could there be multi-country trade pacts of which groups of countries agree to a tariff schedule?
BESSENT: Mr. Chairman, this will be path-dependent on our trade partners.
As I’ve said before, there are 18 very important trading relationships.
We are currently negotiating with 17 of those trading partners.
China we have not engaged in negotiations with as of yet.
So I expect that we can see a substantial reduction in the tariffs that we are being charged as well as non-tariff barriers, currency manipulation, and the subsidies of both labor and capital investment.
