Beijing accuses Washington of ‘misleading the public’ about trade talks

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BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s foreign ministry urged Washington on Friday to stop “misleading the public” on bilateral tariff negotiations, and said it wasn’t familiar with reports on whether Beijing was planning to exempt tariffs on some U.S. imports.

“The United States and China are not engaged in consultations or talks on the tariff issue,” Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson for the ministry, said at a press briefing.

U.S. President Donald Trump asserted on Thursday that trade talks between the two countries were underway, after both China’s foreign ministry and commerce ministry denied such negotiations.

Guo also said he was not familiar with the specifics of whether China was planning tariff exemptions on some U.S. imports.

The back-and-forth remarks by Beijing and Washington add further confusion as to when and whether the world’s two largest economies would start talks on high levies on each others’ goods.

Multiple rounds of tariff hikes and retaliative measures have raised U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods to 145% and China’s on U.S. imports to 125%, upending the operations of many businesses on both sides.

The Trump administration had said it would look at lowering tariffs on some imported Chinese goods, pending talks with Beijing, Reuters reported, whereas China said the U.S. should cancel all “unilateral” tariffs if it wanted to solve the trade issue.

On Friday, China’s top policymakers convened a meeting where they highlighted the need to support businesses and workers amid rising “external shocks.”

Tit-for-tat tariffs that began with U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of hefty import levies on April 2 had threatened to stall trade between the world’s two biggest economies and sparked fears of a slowdown in global growth.

This week, the U.S. shifted its tone and said the situation was unsustainable, and China is considering exempting some U.S. imports from its 125% tariffs in the biggest sign yet of Beijing’s concerns about the economic fallout.

The moves were the latest signs that the world’s two largest economies were prepared to rein in their trade war.

(Reporting by Laurie Chen; Writing by Yukun Zhang and Liz Lee; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Kim Coghill)