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 transaction 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 approved Perdue April in a vote His swearing-in ceremony comes as China and the U S are set to begin transaction talks following Trump's tariffs on the nation in newest months Our new ambassador brings to this position a lifetime of experience at the highest levels of business and politics Trump explained 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 growing a wealth of experience negotiating and doing tremendous business deals for lots of different leaders that he worked with SCOTT BESSENT SAYS US DOESN'T WANT TO DECOUPLE FROM CHINA AHEAD OF SCHEDULED MEETING WITH CHINESE COUNTERPARTTrump informed Perdue to say hello to President Xi when you're over there The Trump administration has leveled tariffs as high as on Chinese goods as the president looks to bring parity to the nation's chronic business deficit with foreign countries Trump paused his April reciprocal tariff plan on dozens of nations in April as countries called on the administration to make transaction deals but he upped the ante on China as the country rebuked Trump's transaction policies with tariffs of its own including duty taxes on U S goods Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U S Commerce Representative Jamieson Greer are scheduled to meet with their Chinese counterparts over the weekend in Switzerland to discuss economic matters Bessent reported on Fox News Tuesday CHINA'S ECONOMIC WOES THREATEN REAL WAR AMID TARIFF BATTLE We have shared interests Bessent announced This isn't sustainable as I declared before especially on the Chinese side and you know is the equivalent of an embargo We don't want to decouple what we want is fair agreement China's Ministry of Commerce reported Friday that personnel were evaluating an offer from the Trump administration to hold pact talks on the U S tariffs on Chinese goods The U S has just now taken the initiative on various occasions to convey information to China through relevant parties saying it hopes to talk with China the declaration announced according to Reuters US LEADERS TO MEET WITH CHINESE COUNTERPARTS IN SWITZERLAND AMID CONTRACT WAR Attempting to use talks as a pretext to engage in coercion and extortion would not work the report added Trump and the administration have previously explained they were willing to hold contract negotiations with China including the president saying April 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 the 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 CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP They have to stop fentanyl from coming in Trump declared 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 curriculum nothing ever happened with him He didn't know what the hell he was doing But that would have saved a lot of lives that vote cost 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 dividing line and the job of getting murderers out of our country so countless so a large number of bad things happened Fox News Digital's Ashley Carnahan contributed to this summary