Bessent says onus is on China to remove tariffs, won’t say if they are engaged in direct talks

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent would not say if the United States is directly talking to China to negotiate a trade deal.

“We’re not going to talk about who’s talking to whom,” Bessent said from the White House briefing room. “Over time, we will see that the Chinese tariffs are unsustainable for China.”

“They sell almost five times more goods to us than we sell to them, so the onus will be on them to the take off these tariffs,” Bessent added, while it was President Trump who sparked the trade war.

Pressed on whether the administration is talking to Beijing about tariffs, Bessent deflected.

“Look, they have a different form of government. They’re playing to a different audience. So I’m not going to get into the nitty gritty again of who’s talking to whom. But as I said, I believe for the Chinese, these tariffs are unsustainable very quickly,” Bessent said.

Last week in an interview with TIME, Trump claimed that President Xi Jinping called him, but later would not specify to reporters if he had spoken to Xi since imposing tariffs on China.

“Karoline and I have a lot of jobs around the White House, running the switchboard isn’t one of them,” Bessent said.

While some retailers have voiced concern, Bessent said he doesn’t believe there will be supply chain shocks due to tariffs on China.

“I think retailers, they have managed their inventory in front of this. I speak to dozens of companies, sometimes daily, but definitely weekly, and they know that President Trump is committed to fair trade and have planned accordingly,” Besant said.