U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said trade talks between the United States and China were "a bit stagnant" and may need to be revived through calls between Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
These comments show that progress on both sides has made little progress as they held a truce during the armistice in Geneva two weeks ago, which would lower the tit-tat-for-tat tariffs, which has soared to 145%.
"I believe we will have more negotiations in the next few weeks, and I believe we may call between the president and the XI party chairman at some point," Bessent told Fox News on Thursday.
“Given the scale of the negotiations … it will require the two leaders to weigh each other,” he said. “They have a good relationship and I believe that when President Trump announces his preferences, the Chinese will come to the table.”
The Chinese Foreign Ministry declined to comment on Bessent's remarks on Friday.
Trump has raised the possibility of calling XI on various occasions. He insisted that they had said it before the May 12 talks, but China has been denying it.
After the talks in Switzerland, the two countries said they would sign tariffs on each other's goods for at least the next 90 days, with the additional tax imposed by the U.S. on China falling to 30% this year and China dropping to 10%.
As part of the deal, China also agreed to "stop or cancel" non-tariff measures against the United States, but provided no details.
After the negotiations, China's Ministry of Commerce said that both sides agreed to establish a "China-U.S. economic and trade advisory mechanism to maintain close communication on their respective concerns in the economic and trade sectors and conduct further consultations."
It said the two sides would consult regularly or as needed, "alternate between China and the United States or between mutually agreed third countries."
But since then, there have been few public announcements on talks on either side, and the Trump administration has imposed further restrictions on Chinese companies' use of U.S. technology.
Shortly after the Geneva negotiations, Washington warned companies around the world that using AI chips made by Huawei could trigger criminal penalties for violating U.S. export controls.
The U.S. Department of Commerce also told U.S. companies to provide software for designing semiconductors to stop selling their services to Chinese groups, making it harder for China to develop advanced chips.
“From the perspective of the long-term and complexity of the struggle with the United States, we should be well prepared not only for negotiations, but also for a long confrontation,” said Huo Jianguo, vice president of the research of the World Trade Organization in Beijing, China in the Communist Party’s Joint Media China Media Economic Network.