White House Starts Trade Negotiations, but Tensions Are High with China

The Washington Post

13:06 JST, April 12, 2025

President Donald Trump and his top trade advisers on Thursday opened up the White House to trade negotiations with more than a dozen countries that one official vowed would bear results within weeks even as an escalating trade war with China showed no signs of abating.

As countries scrambled to avoid the full blast of the heavy tariffs that Trump paused Wednesday, senior White House officials said they were satisfied with the first meetings they were taking, with countries offering to pull down trade barriers and make U.S. investments as they tried to understand what might save their businesses from the tax wallop. Several White House officials quoted in this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal considerations.

Still, markets swooned, with the S&P 500 on Thursday shedding a third of its jump the previous day – the biggest since 2008 – as investors realized that the president is not backing away from a confrontation with Beijing.

That fight escalated shortly after 11 a.m., when the White House said the tariffs on China now stand at 145 percent, not 125 percent as Trump had previously said. White House officials declined to detail a pathway out of the confrontation, with one senior official acknowledging that it was “sensitive.”

As of Thursday, Trump viewed China as his top trade priority, though the president is expected to be involved in negotiations with other countries, according to a White House official.

Investors are also facing the reality that the baseline 10 percent tariffs that Trump left in place Wednesday on most imports is the highest level in generations. But in a televised Cabinet meeting, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Trump’s disruptive approach to global trade would yield quick results for U.S. taxpayers.

The president said his trade team was rushing to talk to the 75 countries his administration has said are banging on his doors.

“The biggest problem they have is they don’t have enough time in the day. Everybody wants to come and make a deal,” Trump said during a lengthy Cabinet meeting that included all the top officials whose responsibilities include speaking to senior trade partners.

U.S. trade partners were careful in talking about Trump’s actions, wary of upsetting a president who revels in his powers of retribution. But glimmers of frustration shined through Thursday, with a top leader of the biggest U.S. trading partner, the European Union, referring repeatedly to “this crisis” even as she praised the instigator of the situation, Trump, for pausing the tariffs.

“Tariffs are taxes that only hurt businesses and consumers. That’s why I’ve consistently advocated for a zero-for-zero tariff agreement between the European Union and the United States,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X.

A senior White House official said the Trump administration expects to reach its first deal within the next couple of weeks, adding that officials do not believe it will take as long as a month.

Trump’s advisers continued to tout the flood of incoming calls they said the White House is receiving from other countries, with the senior official saying Trump’s team expects the number of countries seeking to negotiate to increase in the coming days.

According to White House officials, the conversations have often followed the template of foreign officials asking, “What do we need to do?” and “What are the expectations?” Representatives have said they would “go from there” once the United States elaborates.

“They want to make deals,” an official said. “They want to get on the right side of this country. They want to strike these deals as soon as possible.”

The White House is also expecting announcements in the near future from pharmaceutical companies that intend to bring production to the United States as a result of ongoing tariff deliberations.

Those announcements could include “some of the real big boys of pharma,” the official said, declining to elaborate further.

The White House has continued to engage with CEOs, many of whom, Trump advisers suggested, are signaling intentions to make new business investments in the United States by returning production to the country and building new factories in an effort to “get ahead of this,” the White House official said. Trump and his team, in the meantime, have been conciliatory with companies making announcements about their intentions – even if those investments are unlikely to materialize soon.

“For some it will take a little bit of time, but just making an announcement and actually starting that process is a good spot for them to be in,” the White House official said.

Still, many CEOs are hesitant to commit significant resources to factories that can take half a decade to build amid uncertainty about the future of Trump’s tariffs. Companies including Apple sought to proactively announce major manufacturing investments in the U.S. but so far have not been granted an exemption from the levies.

After reaching his decision about the 90-day pause Wednesday, Trump dined in his private dining room with financial executive Charles Schwab and his wife. A White House official said Schwab did not play a part in Trump’s deliberation on the tariff pause.

Some business leaders privately declared their worry about the future. There has been a concerted effort in the business community to educate Trump and his allies about the negative impact of the tariffs, said one CEO, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly about internal planning. Companies have set up war rooms and are developing backup budgets, gaming out potential layoffs in the event the tariffs push the country into a recession.

High-net-worth executives and investors are growing worried about the hit on their portfolios.

“They’ve been losing multiple millions a day, and they’re getting very concerned,” the CEO said.

The CEO is concerned that China will not surrender and that Trump, who built his wealth in real estate, does not have a clear-eyed view of the financial markets.

“He’s familiar with real estate negotiations, bilateral negotiations, but in this case the market is outside of his control,” the CEO said. “He can’t bully the market. He can’t jawbone the market.”

As many of the previous day’s market gains were erased amid lingering uncertainty about tariffs, White House officials sought to minimize concerns, stressing that there are always ups and downs in the stock indexes.

Bessent on Thursday said that “up two, down one is not a bad ratio, or up 10 down five” – sentiments that other Trump White House advisers also echoed inside the building.

Before and after the marathon Cabinet meeting, the administration’s trade team fanned across Washington to receive what they portrayed as the rush of foreign leaders eager to do deals.

Kevin Hassett, the White House economic adviser, told reporters Thursday that the office of Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is setting up “a very orderly process” to prioritize countries that are most important to getting the negotiations to the finish line. He said that this is a “really fast process” and that the administration is reviewing “explicit offers” from about 15 countries.

“We would expect there will be quite a bit of movement of world leaders into the White House over the next three or four weeks,” he said.

Hassett is confident that the White House can strike deals by the 90-day deadline that Trump set Wednesday when he paused most of the higher tariffs, he said. “We’re going to go around the world in 80 days and have 10 days of rest,” Hassett told Fox News.

Foreign diplomats said Trump’s team has been short on specifics of what they hope to get from negotiations. But one senior diplomat said that there was a difference in the way the trade team was engaging with international partners now compared with before Trump’s tariff announcement last week. Before that, the U.S. team did not appear to be empowered to do the back-and-forth of actual negotiation, the diplomat said. Instead, they demanded offers from other countries without offering anything in return.

Now, however, they seem ready to engage in traditional talks, in which they go back and forth and make concessions, the diplomat said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly about the sensitive subject.

The White House trade team has split up the calls they are taking, in part based on who has the best existing relationship with the representatives of particular country, officials have said.

That includes Bessent, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Vice President JD Vance. Some countries have been allowed to “deal directly with the president,” Hassett said.

Bessent said global leaders have been telling him they are happy he will be negotiating.

“And I say, ‘Well, President Trump’s going to be involved too, so bring … your best deal,’” Bessent said at the Cabinet meeting.

Shortly after Trump tweeted his plans to pause the higher tariffs Wednesday, Lutnick met with Simon Harris, Ireland’s minister for foreign affairs and trade, at the former Trump International Hotel in Washington, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private meeting.

“The start of it was very jubilant, the news came out just before,” the person said.

Harris said on X that he had a “productive, timely” visit to Washington this week, which included meetings on Capitol Hill and a “good” meeting with Lutnick. “Calm, measured, detailed discussions and negotiations to find a way forward is key,” Harris said, describing his message to U.S. leaders.

Bessent on Thursday met with Vietnam Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc, who was scheduled to meet with Lutnick the same day. Duc Phoc has been making the rounds in Washington this week, also meeting with Greer and Republican Sens. Bill Hagerty (Tennessee) and Steve Daines (Montana).