TaiPei, Taiwan – US President Donald Trump said Washington and Beijing were on tariffs, expressing the confidence that the two biggest economies in the world would conclude an agreement in the next three to four weeks.
The United States and China have a trade battle in Tit-For-Tat, which threatens to kill the world economy after Trump announced new prices on most countries. More specifically, the United States has imposed prices up to 145% on Chinese imports, which prompted China to retaliate with prices reaching 125% on American products.
“We are convinced that we are going to find something with China,” he said during a signature of executive decree on Thursday afternoon in the Oval office.
“The senior officials” of Beijing had contacted Washington “several times,” said Trump, adding that the two parties had “very good commercial talks”, but that remained more, although he had no evidence of progress.
Asked about the timing on any agreement, Trump said: “I would think in the next three to four weeks.”
Trump refused to say if he had spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
He also refused to say if he would increase the current prices he imposed on Chinese imports, but said: “I may not want to go higher, or I may not even want to go to this level. Maybe I would like to go less, because, you know, you want people to buy. ”
Trump also expressed the confidence that the Chinese social media application agreement Tiktok he is looking for would be to come.
“We have an agreement for Tiktok, but it is subject to China, so we will delay it until this thing is settled,” he said, adding that the agreement would not take more than “five minutes” to finalize after the discussions.
Trump said earlier in April than China’s objections to new American prices had blocked an agreement to sell Tiktok and operate it in the United States.
Trump administration officials have worked on an agreement to sell American assets of the popular social media application, owned by Bytedance, based in China, to an American buyer, as required by a bipartite law promulgated in 2024. But this also requires China approval.
Trump’s remarks occurred a few hours after the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said it had maintained communication in terms of work with its American counterparts.
“The position of China has been consistent – it remains open to engage in economic and commercial consultations with the American team,” said the spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, He Yongqian.
Noting that the unilateral taxation of the prices was entirely initiated by the American side, it cited an old Chinese saying “it is the adolescent of the act which must undo” to urge the United States to correct its approach.
“We urge the United States to immediately cease its maximum pressure tactics, to stop coercion and intimidation and to resolve differences with China by an equal dialogue on the basis of mutual respect,” she said.
Visit of the chief of Nvidia in China
Jensen Huang, CEO of US Chipmaker NVIDIA, said on Thursday that China was a “very important market” for its business after the United States inflicted a sales ban on its H20 artificial intelligence chips in the country.
“We hope to continue to cooperate with China,” said Huang at a meeting with Ren Hongbin, Chief of the Chinese Council for the Promotion of International Trade, quoted by the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
Huang arrived in Beijing earlier during the day at the invitation of the commercial organization.
His visit comes at a time when the United States has imposed export restrictions on Nvidia fleas in China, tightening its influence on the advanced trade in AI technology with Beijing as part of Washington’s strategy to put pressure on China in the middle of an in progress tariff battle.
NVIDIA said on Tuesday that he was informed by the United States government on April 9 that the export of his H20 fleas to China would now require government approval. He said separately that the restriction would remain in place indefinitely.
Although the H20 chip has a relatively modest calculation power, it has other features that make it suitable for the construction of high -performance computer systems.
The US government would have based its decision on concerns that H20 fleas could be used or adapted to Chinese supercomputers. So far, the H20 has been the most legally exportable artificial intelligence chip towards China.
The H20 flea drew attention after its use by Deepseek, a Chinese AI startup, which, in January, unveiled a profitable and competitive AI model formed using the chip.
Huang would have met the founder of Deepseek, Liang Wenfeng, in Beijing, to discuss new conceptions of fleas for IA society which would not trigger new American prohibitions.
Edited by Mike Firn.