China calls reports of ongoing US tariff talks ‘baseless’
Beijing said on Thursday that any claims of ongoing trade talks with Washington were “baseless”, a day after Donald Trump suggested there were active discussions with China about tariffs.
Asked on Wednesday if his administration was “actively” talking to China, the US president said: “Actively. Everything is active. Everybody wants to be a part of what we’re doing.”
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he would set tariffs over the next couple of weeks, insisting that a deal with Beijing “depends on them”.
Pushing back at these comments earlier today, He Yadong, a spokesperson for China’s ministry of commerce, said:
There are currently no economic and trade negotiations between China and the United States.
Any claims about progress in China-US economic and trade negotiations are baseless rumors without factual evidence.
The US put 145% tariffs on imports from China and it responded with a 125% tax on US products.
Key events
Lisa O’Carroll
Donald Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr will meet Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto in Budapest on Friday, Hungary’s foreign ministry has announced.
The US president is travelling to Rome for the pope’s funeral on Saturday and it is not clear what the purpose of his son’s visit is.
Trump Jr works to expand the company’s real estate, retail, commercial, hotel and golf interests, according to the Trump Organization, of which he is vice president.
The ministry did not reveal the purpose of the visit and officials were not immediately available for comment.
Bloomberg reported late on Wednesday that Trump Jr would visit eastern Europe this week as he is seeking to expand his family’s business ties. Trump Jr met Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade last month.
Donald Trump Jr met with Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade amid a wave of anti-government protests and political crises brewing in neighboring Balkan nations. https://t.co/DG5qmj1LfO
— Bloomberg (@business) March 11, 2025
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has said he talked about the war in Ukraine and the need to foster good bilateral relations with the US in his phone call with Donald Trump.
“We both agreed that the war should be brought to an end as soon as possible to stop further unnecessary deaths… to meet soon to address various matters regarding US-South Africa relations,” Ramaphosa wrote in a post on X.
Relations between the two countries are at a low point for many reasons. One of them is South Africa’s genocide case against Israel – Trump’s close ally – for its military conduct in the war on Gaza, which is being heard at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Another is Trump’s belief that the white-minority Afrikaner community are being unjustly discriminated against in South Africa.
Ramaphosa is meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Pretoria today as he tries to position himself as a peacemaker in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Trump to exempt carmakers from some US tariffs – report
Donald Trump is planning to spare carmakers from some of his most onerous tariffs following intense lobbying by industry executives over recent weeks, according to a report in the Financial Times.
Sources told the paper that the US president could exempt tariffs on car parts coming from China while also levying duties on imported steel and aluminum.
The exemptions, however, would leave in place the 25% tariff Trump imposed on all imports of foreign-made cars.
The 25% duty on foreign-imported car parts, which is due to take effect on 3 May, is also expected to continue, according to the FT.
Trump’s move follows criticism of the levies by car industry executives who have echoed warnings that the tariffs would raise car prices in the US, dent profits of carmakers and parts suppliers, and disrupt the intertwined manufacturing operations across countries.
John Elkann, the chair of Stellantis, the carmaker that owns the Fiat and Chrysler brands, warned that “American and European car industries are being put at risk” by Trump’s trade policy.
Lauren Almeida
Lauren Almeida is a Guardian business reporter
The value of Donald Trump’s meme coin jumped by more than 50% on Wednesday after its official website said the coin’s top 220 holders would be invited to a private gala dinner with the president on 22 May.
The top 25 holders of the coin will also get “an ultra-exclusive VIP reception with the president”, as well as a “special tour”, the website said.
Despite the sharp rise, the price of the president’s coin is still far below the peak it hit shortly before his inauguration in January, when it soared from about $6 to as high as $75. The launch of coins for Trump and his wife, Melania, have prompted experts to accuse the pair of “shameful” conflicts of interest.
As Donald Trump’s 100 days in office approach, Human Rights Watch has issued a list of what it describes as 100 harmful actions taken by the administration, in what it calls “a relentless barrage of actions that violate, threaten, or undermine the human rights of people in the US and abroad”
Tanya Greene, US program director, said “In just 100 days, the Trump administration has inflicted enormous damage to human rights in the US and around the world. We are deeply concerned that these attacks on fundamental freedoms will continue unabated.”
Human Rights Watch said its compilation of harm from the first 100 days of the Trump administration included “attacks on free speech, the rights of asylum seekers and immigrants, health, environmental, and social protections, education, foreign aid and humanitarian assistance, and the rule of law.”
Human Rights Watch is a New York-based international NGO that conducts research and advocacy on human rights.
Donald Trump will mark his first 100 days in office next week with a rally in Michigan, his first since returning to the White House, press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on social media.
The rally will take place in Macomb County one day before Trump’s 100th day in office.
Minnesota governor Tim Walz has accused US president Donald Trump of throwing the US economy into turmoil, and vowed to try to protect people in the state from the worst of the consequences.
Delivering his annual state of the state speech, Associated Press reports that the man who had hoped to be vice-president in a Kamala Harris administration said:
The president of the United States has chosen – chosen! – to throw our economy into turmoil. Global markets are teetering on the brink of collapse. Businesses across this country and here in Minnesota are already laying off employees by the thousands. Working people are paying more for basic goods. And if you haven’t checked your 401(k) lately, don’t do it. As governor, I will continue to do everything in my power to protect Minnesotans from getting hurt and continue to provide shelter from the storm for Minnesotans.
Reuters reports that, in its regular daily briefing, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson has said China and the US have not held consultations or negotiations on tariffs.
US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday it could take between two and three years to restore normal trade with China, following reports that on Tuesday he told a private investment conference that a trade war with China was “unsustainable”.
Bessent has been credited in some quarters with forcing Donald Trump to backtrack in the face of market reaction. In an analysis piece for the Wall Street Journal overnight, Meridith McGraw and Brian Schwartz wrote that “so far, the only force that has reliably prompted [Trump] to back down is Wall Street. They said:
Both the president and White House officials argue that the sharp U-turns are all part of a long-term plan to force allies and adversaries alike to strike trade deals with the US. And they stress that Trump remains determined to follow through on his pledge to reset global trade.
Trump’s current and former advisers said he watches the markets closely, and as an avid media consumer can’t avoid the dramatic ups and downs that have been displayed across television screens and on front pages for weeks.
But Trump’s dual goals of driving market gains and reshoring American manufacturing through stiff tariffs are sometimes at odds.
Trump reopens tariff uncertainty with threat to reimpose reciprocal tariffs within weeks
Donald Trump again caused economic uncertainty as he declared that his administration would reimpose tariffs it paused on 9 April within “the next two, three weeks” where countries had not struck a deal with the US.
Speaking at the White House, the US president said “In the end, I think what’s going to happen is, we’re going to have a great deals, and by the way, if we don’t have a deal with a company or a country, we’re going to set the tariff. I’d say over the next couple of weeks, wouldn’t you say? I think so. Over the next two, three weeks.”
On 9 April Trump had “paused” the majority of tariffs he had set sweepingly on nearly every international US trade partner. His most recent pronouncement leaves importers and exporters unclear whether by the end of the next month they will be paying Trump’s new baseline 10% tariff, the tariff that was set on 9 April, or an entirely new figure.
So far, several key parts of the global economic have resisted the pressure from the Trump administration to, as JD Vance put it while speaking in India earlier this week, “rebalance” international trade.
The European Union has said it has no intentions of changing its rules on value added tax – a tax imposed on specific goods at the point of sale in EU countries – or on agricultural subsidies. China has shown no sign of bucking under the Trump decision to attempt to impose a 145% tariff on most goods originating there.
On Wednesday a Chinese official said the US “should stop threatening and blackmailing China, and seek dialogue based on equality, respect and mutual benefit. To keep asking for a deal while exerting extreme pressure is not the right way to deal with China and simply will not work.”
Welcome and opening summary …
Welcome to the Guardian’s ongoing rolling coverage of US politics and the second Donald Trump administration. Here are the headlines …
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Trump again spooked businesses with his yo-yoing tariff plans, saying at the White House that “if we don’t have a deal with a company or a country, we’re going to set the tariff … over the next two, three weeks”
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A dozen US states have sued the Trump administration in the US court of international trade in New York on Wednesday to stop its tariff policy, saying it is unlawful and has brought chaos to the American economy
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Trump signed executive orders on Wednesday targeting universities as his administration seeks to reshape higher-education institutions and continues to crack down on diversity and inclusion efforts
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Trump once again attacked Volodymyr Zelenskyy for refusing to agree to peace terms that Ukraine says amount to a surrender to Russia. Trump said Zelenskyy’s stance, refusing to permanently concede Crimea to its nuclear-armed neighbour Russia, who had invaded it in 2014, was “very harmful to the peace negotiations”
