Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday that the Trump administration has yet to negotiate with China on trade since President Donald Trump enacted his sweeping tariffs plan last month.

Bessent’s comments during a hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government contradicted a statement Trump made to Time magazine last month that China President Xi Jinping called him and that the U.S. and China were in active talks to strike a deal.

Bessent said the U.S. has 18 key trading partners and is negotiating with 17 to strike a deal, but China was not among them. The administration has been negotiating with a number of trading partners since Trump imposed sweeping reciprocal tariffs on April 2. Although Trump issued a 90-day pause on the reciprocal tariffs — a 10% baseline levy remains for most countries — the U.S. still is imposing 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, plus 25% tariffs on some Canadian and Mexican goods and a total of 145% tariffs on Chinese imports.

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