00.29 BSTBessent confirms trade talks with China begin Saturday in SwitzerlandScott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, told the Fox host Laura Ingraham that he will meet with Chinese officials to look for a way out of the trade war Donald Trump started last month when he imposed massive tariffs.“Laura, we haven’t had negotiations,” Bessent said. “The world has been coming to the US, and China has been the missing piece. I was going to be in Switzerland to negotiate with the Swiss. Turns out the Chinese team is traveling through Europe. And they will be in Switzerland, also. So, we will meet on Saturday and Sunday.”“Look, we have shared interests,” Bessent continued. “This isn’t sustainable,” he added, referring to the effective halt in trade between the two largest economies in the world since Trump imposted a 145% tariff on goods from China. That level of tariff, Bessent said “is the equivalent of an embargo”.“We don’t want to decouple. What we want is fair trade,” he said.Bessent’s first statement, that there have been no negotiations with China directly contradicts a claim Trump made two weeks ago that there have been talks.Asked by Jeff Mason of Reuters on 24 April if he could “clarify with whom the US is speaking with China? They’re saying it’s ‘fake news’ that trade talks are happening”, Trump replied: “Well, they had a meeting this morning.”When Mason asked, “Who’s ‘they’?” Trump said: “I can’t tell you; it doesn’t matter who ‘they’ is. We may reveal it later, but they had meetings this morning. And we’ve been meeting with China. So I think you have, Jeff, as usual. I think have your reporting wrong.”As Mason clarified that he “was saying what China said”, Trump abruptly ended the press availability.Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty ImagesShareUpdated at 00.35 BST
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