China insists no tariff talks underway with Trump and Xi or most sensible aides, in spite of U.S. claims

China on Monday as soon as once more denied that it’s in talks to get to the bottom of its tariff battle with the United States, after a chain of statements by means of President Donald Trump and his aides suggesting business negotiations had been underway.

“Let me make it clear one more time that China and the U.S. are not engaged in any consultation or negotiation on tariffs,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun mentioned at a press convention.

Guo additionally looked as if it would reject Trump’s declare, in an interview with TIME remaining week, that Chinese President Xi Jinping had known as him.

“As far as I know, there have not been any calls between the two presidents recently,” the spokesman mentioned.

The newest blanket denial was once consistent with Beijing’s hardline stance towards Trump’s large 145% price lists on imports from China, a most sensible provider of U.S. items.

Trump management officers, together with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, insist that the U.S. is best located to win a business battle than China is.

But American trade homeowners and analysts are elevating alarms that the efficient business embargo with China may just quickly lead to main financial penalties, together with upper costs, product shortages and retailer closures.

Against that backdrop — and Trump’s fresh declare that his management can be completed crafting new business offers with a large number of international locations in as low as 3 or 4 weeks — some U.S. officers have expressed extra openness towards a discussion with Beijing.

“Every day we are in conversation with China,” Trump’s Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, mentioned Sunday on CNN.

When instructed that the Chinese deny this, Rollins mentioned, “Well, according to our team in Washington, the conversations are ongoing regarding multiples of trade, multiples of the trade goods that are coming out and going in.”

“The bottom line with China is this, they need us more than we need them,” she mentioned.

Asked on Sunday why China would deny that negotiations are underway, Bessent mentioned, “Well, I think they’re playing to a different audience.”

Pressed to give an explanation for whether or not the talks are in truth taking place, he mentioned, “We have a process in place. And again, I just believe these Chinese tariffs are unsustainable.”

Bessent predicted remaining week {that a} “de-escalation” with China was once coming within the “very near future.”

On Monday morning, he pointed to that potential de-escalation to lend a hand give an explanation for why he was once no longer but involved that U.S. customers may just quickly face empty retailer cabinets.

“Not at present,” Bessent mentioned on Fox News, when requested if he was once focused on “empty shelves.”

“We have some great retailers. I assume they pre-ordered. I think we’ll see some elasticities and I think we’ll see replacements, and then we will see how quickly the Chinese want to de-escalate,” mentioned Bessent.

In a separate interview Monday morning on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Bessent put the onus for that de-escalation on China, sooner than pronouncing he would no longer negotiate during the press.

China has persistently demanded that Trump, who has held up price lists as each a formidable negotiating software and technique to rake in govt earnings, scrap his sweeping import taxes.

“If the U.S. really wants to resolve the problem … it should cancel all the unilateral measures on China,” a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce mentioned remaining week.

That commentary, translated from Mandarin by means of CNBC, was once itself a reaction to Trump’s declare on Thursday that U.S. and Chinese officers “had a meeting this morning.”

“We’ve been meeting with China,” Trump instructed newshounds, whilst declining to specify who was once assembly whom.

An afternoon previous, Trump mentioned that U.S. officers had been “actively” speaking with China.