China says it is ‘evaluating’ Trump administration’s outreach on tariffs | Donald Trump News

Ministry of Commerce says ‘door is open’ to talks, however it’s prepared to ‘fight to the end’ in any other case.

China has stated it’s contemplating proposals by the USA to start negotiations on US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.

The US has “recently, through relevant channels, actively conveyed messages to China, expressing a desire to engage in talks”, China’s Ministry of Commerce stated in an announcement on Friday.

“China is currently evaluating this.”

Beijing’s remarks come after Chinese language state media reported earlier within the week that the Trump administration had “proactively reached out” via a number of channels.

Trump’s commerce warfare with China has resulted in a de facto mutual commerce embargo between the world’s two largest economies.

Companies and traders have been anxiously ready for indicators that Washington and Beijing will ease their steep tariffs on one another’s items amid fears {that a} protracted standoff will inflict severe harm on the worldwide financial system.

The Worldwide Financial Fund final month lowered its world progress forecast for 2025 to 2.8 p.c, down from 3.3 p.c in January, whereas JPMorgan Chase has put the chance of a US recession this 12 months at 60 p.c.

Christopher Beddor, deputy China analysis director at Gavekal Dragonomics, a monetary providers firm in Beijing, stated that China seems to be honest about being open to talks supplied the US is severe.

“Again, they’ve got a lot of tools: The tariffs are already in place, but they also have export controls and can launch more probes into US companies,” Beddor instructed Al Jazeera.

“The list goes on. Most importantly, they’re ready to stimulate to blunt the damage to economic growth. But policymakers also clearly understand that it would be a lot better if they didn’t have to use those tools because there was a de-escalation.”

Trump, who has slapped a 145 p.c tariff on Chinese language exports, has repeatedly insisted that his administration is in negotiations with Beijing, a declare that Chinese language officers have rejected as “groundless”.

On Wednesday, Trump stated there was a “very good chance” he would attain a commerce take care of China, as long as it was “fair”.

In its assertion on Friday, China’s Commerce Ministry stated that its stance on the commerce dispute had been constant.

“If there is a fight, we will fight to the end; if there are talks, the door is open,” the ministry stated.

“The tariff war and trade war were unilaterally initiated by the US, and if the US wants to talk, it should demonstrate sincerity by preparing to correct its erroneous actions and rescind the unilateral imposition of additional tariffs,” it stated, including that “attempting to use talks as a pretext to engage in coercion and blackmail” wouldn’t work with China.

‘Wakeup call’

In an interview with Fox Information that aired on Thursday night time, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that Trump’s tariffs had been badly hurting the Chinese language financial system and Beijing was keen to speak.

“The Chinese are reaching out, they want to meet, they want to talk,” Rubio instructed Fox Information host Sean Hannity. “We’ve got people involved in that.”

Rubio additionally stated that the tensions had been a “wake-up call” for the US, and the nation shouldn’t be as depending on China.

“Two more years in this direction, and we are going to be in a lot of trouble, really dependent on China,” he stated. “So, I do think there is this broader question about how much we should buy from them at all.”

Steven Okun, the CEO of Singapore-based consultancy APAC Advisors, stated it could not be a shock to see conferences between Chinese language and US officers “given the interdependence of their economies and the damage being done to both”, however characterising such contact as a “negotiation” could be untimely.