US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he would not lower tariffs on imports from China to kick-start trade talks with Beijing in high-level talks scheduled to take place soon in Switzerland, while his Commerce Department said it would simplify some restrictions on the export of advanced semiconductor chips to the country.
Responding “no” when asked by media whether he was open to pulling back the levies to pave the way for the negotiations, Trump also said stopping fentanyl from entering America would be “a very big part” of the dialogue led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
Trump made his remarks during the swearing-in ceremony for David Perdue, the new US ambassador to China, shortly after Bessent told the House Financial Services Committee that he had signed an order “identifying Chinese entities who are engaged in the fentanyl trade”, with the list set to be made public “within the next few days”.
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Bessent’s testimony suggested the release could come shortly before, after or even overlap with the coming US-China trade talks, which he and Greer are scheduled to attend this weekend.
In February, Bessent held a call with China’s top economic official, Vice-Premier He Lifeng, whom the Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday would visit Switzerland from May 9 to 12.
Separately on Wednesday, a Commerce Department spokesperson said the Export Control Framework for AI Diffusion would be rescinded in favour of “a much simpler rule”.
Announced a week before the end of the Joe Biden administration, the restriction was “overly complex, overly bureaucratic and would stymie American innovation”, the spokesperson said, adding that “we will be replacing it with a much simpler rule that unleashes American innovation and ensures American AI dominance”.
As outlined, and set to take effect on May 15, the restrictions would have blocked exports of AI chips and technology to China and other nations defined as adversaries and allowed nearly unlimited access for Washington’s closest allies.
It was not clear if the rescission announced on Wednesday was in any way related to the coming talks, and no further details were provided.
US Vice-President J.D. Vance, meanwhile, signalled that Bessent and Greer would push Beijing to take more measures to boost domestic consumption in the world’s second-largest economy as a way to narrow China’s trade surplus with the US.
Speaking at the Munich Leaders Meeting in Washington on Wednesday, Vance said the US was receptive to “an open dialogue” with Beijing but stressed the need to “rebalance the global economy vis-a-vis China” to address its persistent trade surplus.
“We cannot absorb hundreds of billions of dollars – close to a trillion dollars per year in annual surplus, most of it coming from the People’s Republic of China,” Vance said.
“What that’s going to mean in the rebalancing is that we think the PRC is going to have to, frankly, let their own population consume a little bit more.”
Bessent and Greer will meet He, marking the first high-level, in-person engagement between the two sides since Trump announced his so-called “reciprocal” tariffs last month.
Bessent told Fox News in an interview that the meetings would take place on Saturday and Sunday.
Greer is seen as the one of the leading figures of the second Trump administration engaging with Beijing.
America’s top trade envoy was in contact with He in March. Greer told media that he had a phone conversation on April 2 with He regarding the so-called “reciprocal” tariffs, but Beijing has not confirmed that such a call took place.
In recent weeks, Trump has claimed that American and Chinese officials have been in contact on trade. Beijing has repeatedly denied these claims, while both parties have identified each other as the initiator of the coming trade talks.
Since Trump returned to the White House in January, Washington has imposed 145 per cent tariffs on Chinese imports, bringing the effective rate to about 156 per cent.
A fact sheet released by the White House showed that China is currently facing up to 245 per cent tariffs.
In retaliation, China slapped 125 per cent levies on US goods and imposed some restrictions on mineral exports and several American companies’ trade and investment in China.
Despite the recent confirmation of the long-awaited conversation, both sides have played down expectations, suggesting the meeting in Switzerland may not lead to significant progress.
In his Fox News interview after the coming negotiations were announced, Bessent said: “My sense is that this will be about de-escalation, not about the big trade deal, but we’ve got to de-escalate before we can move forward.”
The Treasury chief also repeated Trump’s line that there had been “a lot of contact points over time” between the two sides.
Beijing has warned Washington not to use dialogue “as a pretext to continue coercive and blackmailing tactics”, according to a Ministry of Commerce read-out.
“If the US says one thing but does another or even attempts to use negotiations as a pretext to continue coercive and blackmailing tactics, China will never agree, nor will it sacrifice its principles or international fairness and justice to seek any agreement,” it said.
Additional reporting by Robert Delaney in Washington
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