U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer pushed back against critics of the U.S.-China tariff talks Monday on “The Ingraham Angle,” saying the reason the Trump administration has been able to “move forward” is because China is focused on securing a deal.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that the U.S. had made “substantial progress” in discussions with China — the first since President Donald Trump issued reciprocal tariffs on a handful of countries in April. After airing a clip of former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers claiming Trump was the one who caved to China, Fox host Laura Ingraham asked Greer about skepticism from some pundits.
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“Remember, President Trump, when he imposed tariffs on the world, China just being one part of that, the intent was to have tariff levels that drive down the trade deficit. Now, remember, China really was the first target of President Trump in 2018,” Greer said. “He imposed tariffs of about 25% on most goods coming in from China, including steel and aluminum, and a host of other high-technology products. Those were still in place earlier this year.”
“He put on tariffs of 20% on fentanyl. Then he put on the 34%. And to be clear, that 34% could still happen, right? China has now qualified for the pause. And so it has a 10% tariff and has a 90-day pause to negotiate with them,” Greer added. “But if things don’t work out, those tariffs can go back up. I think the Chinese are really focused on a deal, and they want to move forward constructively. That’s why they’re now able to have the 10%. But all these measures from before are still in place.”
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In April, Trump announced a baseline of 10% tariffs against a list of countries, adding harsher tariffs against other countries like China due to their tariffs placed against the United States. Following the announcement, China and the U.S. broke out into a tariff war, with Trump eventually hitting the foreign country with a 145% tariff.
Ingraham had Greer clarify if he would be “counting the old tariffs that were in place” that former President Joe Biden did not lift.
“That’s right, because we have a host of measures in place on China. That’s exactly right. And so when you look at the world, President Trump has imposed significant tariffs on China, substantially more than they have,” Greer said. “This exercise over the past weekend was focused on that reciprocal tariff matter where the Chinese escalated so quickly, and the president matched them. All the other measures, we have a lot of complaints about China. They have things we do they don’t like. Those are things to discuss in the future, potentially.”
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While an official deal hasn’t been finalized, Bessent told CNBC on Monday that China now appears to be seriously considering curbing fentanyl entering the U.S.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
