‘Ball is in China’s court’: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on tariff war

WASHINGTON: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to questions on China during the White House Press Briefing on Tuesday (US local time) and shared with members of media, President Donald Trump’s additional statement on China.

Answering a question about extension on the TikTok ban to June 19, if China doesn’t come to the table, Leavitt said that two months is a long time. She said that she doesn’t want to get ahead. The Vice President continues to lead these negotiations and talks. The President is involved, and they are ongoing.”

When asked if Trump would reduce tariffs on China in order to get the TikTok deal done, Leavitt said that Trump’s position on China is “quite clear.”

“The ball is in China’s court.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt shares a new statement from President Trump on tariffs against China. pic.twitter.com/vt0WwJXlB9

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In her remarks, Leavitt said, “The President has made his position on China quite clear, although I do have an additional statement that he just shared with me in the Oval Office. The ball is in China’s court. China needs to make a deal with us. We don’t have to make a deal with them.”

She elaborated, “There’s no difference between China and any other country, except they are much larger. And China wants what we have, what every country wants, what we have — the American consumer, or to put it another way, they need our money.”

She further added, “So the President again has made it quite clear that he’s open to a deal with China, but China needs to make a deal with the United States of America.”

Responding to a question on tariffs as to which deals are in hand, Leavitt praised the work being done by the American officials such as the US Trade Ambassador, Secretary of Commerce, and Secretary of Treasury, “who are working incredibly hard to cut these good trade deals.”

She added, “The President is deeply involved in this (trade deal) and he has made it clear to his trade team that he wants to personally sign off on all these deals too.”

Leavitt further noted, “You’ve obviously heard from numerous administration officials that there have been many talks with countries. We’ve had more than 15 deals, pieces of paper put on the table, proposals that are actively being considered, and as we have said consistently, more than 75 countries have reached out, so there is a lot of work to do.” Leavitt also said, “We do believe that we can announce some deals very soon.”

Trump had enacted a 90-day pause on “reciprocal” tariffs that briefly took effect last week, impacting dozens of nations, as reported by CNN. Citing administrative officials, CNN also noted that the pause was put in place to buy more time to work on nailing down more trade deals.

As reported by CNN, the pause, however, did not impact China, whose products are subject to a minimum 145 per cent, with the exception of certain electronics. CNN noted that on Friday, China also significantly ramped up its own duties on US imports into the country. (ANI)