Trade war Washington and Beijing in talks to settle dispute, says Trump

The US and China held talks yesterday to help resolve the trade war between the world's two largest economies, Donald Trump said.

- Heather Stewart

"We may reveal it later, but they had meetings this morning, and we've been meeting with China," the US president told reporters at the White House.

China had earlier hit back against his previous claim of being close to a trade deal with Beijing.

Trump had buoyed markets by suggesting on Wednesday that the US was "actively" negotiating with Beijing, and pointing to hopes of a deal that would "substantially" reduce tariffs on goods coming into the US from China, currently set at 145%.

But the Chinese commerce secretary, He Yadong, insisted there were "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," he added.

Yang said that if the US wanted "de-escalation", as Trump's treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, has argued, it should "completely cancel all unilateral tariff measures against China and find a way to resolve differences through equal dialogue".