Pivotal trade talks with Beijing loom as Trump swears in new US ambassador to China: ‘What timing’

Former Georgia Republican Sen. David Perdue was sworn in as U.S. ambassador to China Wednesday, with President Donald Trump remarking on the timing of the ceremony as trade talks between the two nations are set to kick off. 

“We’re swearing in our next ambassador to the People’s Republic of China. What timing, David. What timing? Only you could have picked this timing,” Trump quipped as Secretary of State Marco Rubio prepared to swear Perdue in. 

The Senate confirmed Perdue April 29 in a 67–29 vote. His swearing-in ceremony comes as China and the U.S. set to begin trade talks following Trump’s tariffs on the nation in recent months. 

“Our new ambassador brings to this position a lifetime of experience at the highest levels of business and politics,” Trump said. “And he is at the highest level. Over four decades in business, he rose to lead several major American corporations, including as the president and CEO of the footwear giant Reebok, where he did very well and did a great job. And later the CEO of Dollar General. Likewise, he did a great job. David also lived and worked in Singapore and Hong Kong for several years, developing a wealth of experience negotiating and doing tremendous business deals for lots of different leaders that he worked with.” 

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Trump told Perdue to “say hello to President XI when you’re over there.”

The Trump administration has leveled tariffs as high as 145% on Chinese goods as the president looks to bring parity to the nation’s chronic trade deficit with foreign countries. Trump paused his April 2 reciprocal tariff plan on dozens of nations in April as countries called on the administration to make trade deals, but he upped the ante on China as the country rebuked Trump’s trade policies with tariffs of its own, including 125% duty taxes on U.S. goods. 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer are scheduled to meet with Chinese counterparts over the weekend in Switzerland to discuss economic matters, Bessent said on Fox News Tuesday. 

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“We have shared interests,” Bessent said. “This isn’t sustainable, as I said before, especially on the Chinese side — and, you know, 145%, 125% is the equivalent of an embargo. We don’t want to decouple — what we want is fair trade.” 

China’s Ministry of Commerce said Friday that officials were “evaluating” an offer from the Trump administration to hold trade talks on the 145% U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods.

“The U.S. has recently taken the initiative on many occasions to convey information to China through relevant parties, saying it hopes to talk with China,” the statement said, according to Reuters. 

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“Attempting to use talks as a pretext to engage in coercion and extortion would not work,” the statement added. 

Trump and the administration previously have said they were willing to hold trade negotiations with China, including the president saying April 8, “We are waiting for their call. It will happen.”

Trump continued during the ceremony that Perdue would help lead the charge to end the flow of deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl into the U.S., an issue Trump has railed against while leveraging tariffs on China to end the illegal drugs from entering the U.S. 

“They have to stop fentanyl from coming in,” Trump said. “And that’ll be a very big part. And I had that understanding with President Xi before I left, last time. And we had a deal, and he would have honored the deal. But when Biden came in, of course, nothing ever happened with him. He didn’t know what the hell he was doing. But that would have saved a lot of lives at election caused us a lot of lives and a lot of heartache. The fact that we went through four years of misery, and you look at what’s coming through the border and, the job of getting murderers out of our country, so many, so many bad things happened.” 

 Fox News Digital’s Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.