China calls stories of ongoing US tariff talks ‘baseless’
Beijing mentioned on Thursday that any claims of ongoing commerce talks with Washington have been “baseless”, a day after Donald Trump urged there have been lively discussions with China about tariffs.
Requested on Wednesday if his administration was “actively” speaking to China, the US president mentioned: “Actively. Every thing is lively. All people needs to be part of what we’re doing.”
Trump informed reporters within the Oval Workplace that he would set tariffs over the subsequent couple of weeks, insisting {that a} take care of Beijing “is determined by them”.
Pushing again at these feedback earlier in the present day, He Yadong, a spokesperson for China’s ministry of commerce, mentioned:
There are presently no financial and commerce negotiations between China and the USA.
Any claims about progress in China-US financial and commerce negotiations are baseless rumors with out factual proof.
The US put 145% tariffs on imports from China and it responded with a 125% tax on US merchandise.
Key occasions
US authorities official says clear energy insurance policies are ‘dangerous and harmful’
Tommy Joyce, an performing assistant secretary of worldwide affairs on the US vitality division, has been talking at an vitality summit in London.
Joyce, who’s within the place whereas Donald Trump’s alternative to go the division of vitality’s worldwide affairs workplace, David Eisner, awaits Senate affirmation, mentioned that clear energy insurance policies are “dangerous and harmful”.
“The main focus over the past administration was on local weather politics and insurance policies resulting in that (vitality) shortage. These insurance policies have been embraced by many, not simply the USA, and hurt human lives,” Joyce informed enterprise leaders and ministers who gathered at Lancaster Home for the convention.
Talking shortly after an tackle by the UK’s vitality secretary, Ed Miliband, Joyce stopped in need of criticising Britain’s push in direction of clear energy.
However he mentioned:
Some need to regulate each type of vitality in addition to the so-called renewables, utterly out of existence and in favour of a internet zero. We oppose these dangerous and harmful insurance policies. This isn’t vitality safety, and we all know precisely the place it leads.
China calls stories of ongoing US tariff talks ‘baseless’
Beijing mentioned on Thursday that any claims of ongoing commerce talks with Washington have been “baseless”, a day after Donald Trump urged there have been lively discussions with China about tariffs.
Requested on Wednesday if his administration was “actively” speaking to China, the US president mentioned: “Actively. Every thing is lively. All people needs to be part of what we’re doing.”
Trump informed reporters within the Oval Workplace that he would set tariffs over the subsequent couple of weeks, insisting {that a} take care of Beijing “is determined by them”.
Pushing again at these feedback earlier in the present day, He Yadong, a spokesperson for China’s ministry of commerce, mentioned:
There are presently no financial and commerce negotiations between China and the USA.
Any claims about progress in China-US financial and commerce negotiations are baseless rumors with out factual proof.
The US put 145% tariffs on imports from China and it responded with a 125% tax on US merchandise.
Lisa O’Carroll
Donald Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr will meet the Hungarian overseas minister Peter Szijjarto in Budapest on Friday, Hungary’s overseas ministry has introduced.
The US president is travelling to Rome for the pope’s funeral on Saturday and it isn’t clear what the aim of his son’s go to is.
Trump Jr works to increase the corporate’s actual property, retail, business, lodge and golf pursuits, in accordance with the Trump Group, of which he’s vice-president.
The ministry didn’t reveal the aim of the go to and officers weren’t instantly accessible for remark.
Bloomberg reported late on Wednesday that Trump Jr would go to japanese Europe this week as he’s looking for to increase his household’s enterprise ties. Trump Jr met Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade final 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 (@enterprise) March 11, 2025
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has mentioned he talked in regards to the conflict in Ukraine and the necessity to foster good bilateral relations with the US in his cellphone name with Donald Trump.
“We each agreed that the conflict must be delivered to an finish as quickly as attainable to cease additional pointless deaths… to satisfy quickly to deal with varied issues concerning US-South Africa relations,” Ramaphosa wrote in a publish on X.
Relations between the 2 nations are at a low level for a lot of causes. Certainly one of them is South Africa’s genocide case towards Israel – Trump’s shut ally – for its army conduct within the conflict on Gaza, which is being heard on the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ).
One other is Trump’s perception that the white-minority Afrikaner group are being unjustly discriminated towards in South Africa.
Ramaphosa is assembly Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Pretoria in the present day as he tries to place himself as a peacemaker within the battle between Russia and Ukraine.
Trump to exempt carmakers from some US tariffs – report
Donald Trump is planning to spare carmakers from a few of his most onerous tariffs following intense lobbying by business executives over current weeks, in accordance with a report within the Monetary Instances.
Sources informed the paper that the US president may exempt tariffs on automotive elements coming from China whereas additionally levying duties on imported metal and aluminum.
The exemptions, nonetheless, would depart in place the 25% tariff Trump imposed on all imports of foreign-made automobiles.
The 25% obligation on foreign-imported automotive elements, which is because of take impact on 3 Might, can be anticipated to proceed, in accordance with the FT.
Trump’s transfer follows criticism of the levies by automotive business executives who’ve echoed warnings that the tariffs would elevate automotive costs within the US, dent income of carmakers and elements suppliers, and disrupt the intertwined manufacturing operations throughout nations.
John Elkann, the chair of Stellantis, the carmaker that owns the Fiat and Chrysler manufacturers, warned that “American and European automotive industries are being put in danger” by Trump’s commerce coverage.
Lauren Almeida
Lauren Almeida is a Guardian enterprise reporter
The worth of Donald Trump’s meme coin jumped by greater than 50% on Wednesday after its official web site mentioned the coin’s prime 220 holders can be invited to a non-public gala dinner with the president on 22 Might.
The highest 25 holders of the coin can even get “an ultra-exclusive VIP reception with the president”, in addition to a “particular tour”, the web site mentioned.
Regardless of the sharp rise, the value of the president’s coin remains to be far under the height it hit shortly earlier than his inauguration in January, when it soared from about $6 to as excessive as $75. The launch of cash for Trump and his spouse, Melania, have prompted specialists to accuse the pair of “shameful” conflicts of curiosity.
As Donald Trump’s 100 days in workplace method, Human Rights Watch has issued a listing of what it describes as 100 dangerous actions taken by the administration, in what it calls “a relentless barrage of actions that violate, threaten, or undermine the human rights of individuals within the US and overseas”
Tanya Greene, US program director, mentioned “In simply 100 days, the Trump administration has inflicted huge injury to human rights within the US and world wide. We’re deeply involved that these assaults on basic freedoms will proceed unabated.”
Human Rights Watch mentioned its compilation of hurt from the primary 100 days of the Trump administration included “assaults on free speech, the rights of asylum seekers and immigrants, well being, environmental, and social protections, training, overseas support and humanitarian help, and the rule of regulation.”
Human Rights Watch is a New York-based worldwide NGO that conducts analysis and advocacy on human rights.
Donald Trump will mark his first 100 days in workplace subsequent week with a rally in Michigan, his first since returning to the White Home, press secretary Karoline Leavitt introduced on social media.
The rally will happen in Macomb County at some point earlier than Trump’s a centesimal day in workplace.
Minnesota governor Tim Walz has accused US president Donald Trump of throwing the US financial system into turmoil, and vowed to attempt to defend individuals within the state from the worst of the results.
Delivering his annual state of the state speech, Related Press stories that the person who had hoped to be vice-president in a Kamala Harris administration mentioned:
The president of the USA has chosen – chosen! – to throw our financial system into turmoil. World markets are teetering on the point of collapse. Companies throughout this nation and right here in Minnesota are already shedding workers by the 1000’s. Working persons are paying extra for fundamental items. And if you happen to haven’t checked your 401(ok) these days, don’t do it. As governor, I’ll proceed to do every thing in my energy to guard Minnesotans from getting damage and proceed to offer shelter from the storm for Minnesotans.
Reuters stories that, in its common every day briefing, China’s overseas ministry spokesperson has mentioned China and the US haven’t held consultations or negotiations on tariffs.
US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent mentioned on Wednesday it may take between two and three years to revive regular commerce with China, following stories that on Tuesday he informed a non-public funding convention {that a} commerce conflict with China was “unsustainable”.
Bessent has been credited in some quarters with forcing Donald Trump to backtrack within the face of market response. In an evaluation piece for the Wall Avenue Journal in a single day, Meridith McGraw and Brian Schwartz wrote that “to this point, the one pressure that has reliably prompted [Trump] to again down is Wall Avenue. They mentioned:
Each the president and White Home officers argue that the sharp U-turns are all a part of a long-term plan to pressure allies and adversaries alike to strike commerce offers with the US. They usually stress that Trump stays decided to observe by on his pledge to reset world commerce.
Trump’s present and former advisers mentioned he watches the markets carefully, and as an avid media client can’t keep away from the dramatic ups and downs which were displayed throughout tv screens and on entrance pages for weeks.
However Trump’s twin objectives of driving market features and reshoring American manufacturing by stiff tariffs are generally at odds.
Trump reopens tariff uncertainty with risk to reimpose reciprocal tariffs inside weeks
Donald Trump once more induced financial uncertainty as he declared that his administration would reimpose tariffs it paused on 9 April inside “the subsequent two, three weeks” the place nations had not struck a take care of the US.
Talking on the White Home, the US president mentioned “Ultimately, I feel what’s going to occur is, we’re going to have an awesome offers, and by the best way, if we don’t have a take care of an organization or a rustic, we’re going to set the tariff. I’d say over the subsequent couple of weeks, wouldn’t you say? I feel so. Over the subsequent two, three weeks.”
On 9 April Trump had “paused” the vast majority of tariffs he had set sweepingly on practically each worldwide US commerce associate. His most up-to-date pronouncement leaves importers and exporters unclear whether or not by the top of the subsequent month they are going to be paying Trump’s new baseline 10% tariff, the tariff that was set on 9 April, or a completely new determine.
To date, a number of key elements of the worldwide financial have resisted the stress from the Trump administration to, as JD Vance put it whereas talking in India earlier this week, “rebalance” worldwide commerce.
The European Union has mentioned it has no intentions of fixing its guidelines on worth added tax – a tax imposed on particular items on the level of sale in EU nations – or on agricultural subsidies. China has proven no signal of bucking beneath the Trump resolution to aim to impose a 145% tariff on most items originating there.
On Wednesday a Chinese language official mentioned the US “ought to cease threatening and blackmailing China, and search dialogue based mostly on equality, respect and mutual profit. To maintain asking for a deal whereas exerting excessive stress is just not the precise solution to take care of China and easily is not going to work.”
Welcome and opening abstract …
Welcome to the Guardian’s ongoing rolling protection of US politics and the second Donald Trump administration. Listed here are the headlines …
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Trump once more spooked companies along with his yo-yoing tariff plans, saying on the White Home that “if we don’t have a take care of an organization or a rustic, we’re going to set the tariff … over the subsequent two, three weeks”
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A dozen US states have sued the Trump administration within the US court docket of worldwide commerce in New York on Wednesday to cease its tariff coverage, saying it’s illegal and has introduced chaos to the American financial system
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Trump signed government orders on Wednesday focusing on universities as his administration seeks to reshape higher-education establishments and continues to crack down on variety and inclusion efforts
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Trump as soon as once more attacked Volodymyr Zelenskyy for refusing to comply with peace phrases that Ukraine says quantity to a give up to Russia. Trump mentioned Zelenskyy’s stance, refusing to completely concede Crimea to its nuclear-armed neighbour Russia, who had invaded it in 2014, was “very dangerous to the peace negotiations”
