Scott Bessent Says Trump Admin Has ‘Not Engaged In Negotiations’ With China ‘Yet’

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told a House subcommittee Tuesday the Trump administration has not talked with China about trade or negotiating an end to increased tariffs.

President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs via an April 9 post on Truth Social that also announced substantial increases on tariffs on Chinese exports to the United States, a week after he initially unveiled the duties on imports. Bessent told the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government during Tuesday’s hearing that the administration was negotiating with 17 major trading partners.

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“As I have said before, there are 18 very important trading relationships,” Bessent said. “We are currently negotiating with 17 of those trading partners. China, we have not engaged in negotiations with as of yet. So, I can expect we can see a substantial reduction in the tariffs we are being charged, as well as non-tariff barriers, currency manipulation and the subsidies of both labor and capital investment.”

“So, that is proceeding very well,” Bessent continued. “Many of our trading partners have approached us with very good offers and we are in the process of renegotiating.”

Trump campaigned on imposing tariffs to help boost manufacturing in the United States during the 2024 presidential election. During that campaign, then-Vice President Kamala Harris claimed in ads and in speeches that Trump’s plan to impose tariffs would be a “sales tax” and maintained it would cost American families $4,000 a year in higher prices, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Bessent previously said during an April 24 Oval Office meeting that the United States was making progress with South Korea, saying the U.S. ally brought it’s “A game” to the negotiations. Vice President J.D. Vance and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the United States and India had reached agreement on a roadmap for negotiations during Vance’s trip to Italy and India in April.

The Justice Department secured indictments against six Chinese manufacturers on fentanyl-related charges in June and October of 2023 as Chinese dealers reportedly offered fentanyl precursors for sale in risqué social media ads.

China has also been accused of engaging in intellectual property theft, with “Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary urging the Trump administration to press the issue.

““It’s time to level the playing field. I’ve been saying the same thing for weeks now. IP theft, access to their markets, delist their companies and don’t comply to the rules I have to comply to because of millions of dollars,” O’Leary said during an April 24 appearance on “The Evening Edit.” “They don’t have to. Why do they get to do that? Why don’t we just get it on the table? I don’t care what they say. I know they’re talking because they don’t have a choice.”

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