Sec. Bessent: ‘Over Time, We Will See that the Chinese Tariffs Are Unsustainable for China’

Reporter: “The Chinese continue to say that the U.S. and China are not engaged in any consultation or negotiation on tariffs. You recently said you’ve talk to your counterpart, but more about traditional things like financial stability. So can you clarify, is the administration talking to Beijing specifically about tariffs or not?”
BESSENT: “Well, we’re not going to talk about who’s talking to whom, but I think that over time we will see that the Chinese tariffs are unsustainable for China. I’ve seen some very large numbers over the past few days that show, if these numbers stay on, Chinese could lose 10 million jobs very quickly. And even if there is a drop in the tariffs, that they could lose 5 million jobs. So remember that we are the deficit country. They sell almost five times more goods to us than we sell to them, so the onus will be on them to take off these tariffs. They’re unsustainable for them.”
Reporter: “And they are saying you guys are not talking about it. So is that true?”
BESSENT: “Look, they have a different form of government, they’re playing to a different audience. So I’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty, again, of who’s talking to whom. But, as I said, I believe, for the Chinese, these tariffs are unsustainable.”
Reporter: “Very quickly, you didn’t know if President Trump had spoken to Xi Jinping. Do you know now?”
BESSENT: “Again, I would say, Karoline and I have a lot of jobs around the White House. Running the switchboard isn’t one of them.”