Did Xi Jinping call Donald Trump? US President claims contact with Beijing as China eases US-made semiconductor tariffs

US President Donald Trump has said that Chinese President Xi Jinping called him amid the trade war between Washington and Beijing. Trump's comments come as reports are saying that China is ‘quietly’ rolling back some of its tariffs on the US.

China and US have been at loggerheads since April 2 when Donald Trump announced a 34 per cent retaliatory tariff on Beijing. In response, Beijing also increased US tariffs to 34 per cent. A trade war followed, and now US goods imported to China face 125 per cent taxation, while Chinese goods imported into the US have 145 per cent levies on them.

China cuts tariffs on semiconductors

According to a report by CNN, China is seemingly rolling back retaliatory tariffs of 125 per cent on “some semiconductors made in the US”.

Details accessed by CNN from three import agencies in Shenzhen, a tech hub, reportedly showed integrated circuits, also known as microchips or semiconductors, being exempted from the levy.

With the apparent exemption of tariffs on US-made semiconductors, Beijing is seemingly trying to soften the blow of the trade war.

Even though China has its own semiconductor manufacturing units, it borrows a major chunk of the chips from the United States, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and the Netherlands. Last year, China imported $11.7 billion worth of semiconductors from the US, as per customs data cited by CNN.

Semiconductors are extremely important for any electronic device, and they are hard to make, thanks to the high cost of development and knowledge needed to build them.

However, Chinese authorities have not publicly announced a decision to make semiconductors tariff-exempt.

The report comes as a contradiction to China's earlier resolve to strengthen its economy amid the trade war.

“We must strengthen bottom-line thinking, fully prepare emergency plans, and do a solid job in economic work,” Beijing had said in a statement.

Beijing vowed to “work with the international community to actively uphold multilateralism and oppose unilateral bullying practices”, as it spoke about Trump's reciprocal tariffs.

Donald Trump says Xi Jinping called him

In a recent interview with Time Magazine, US President Donald Trump said his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping called him amid the trade war.

On being asked about whether Jinping had called Trump, he replied with a single ‘Yep’. He said he will not call Jinping himself.

Trump did not provide many details about the call with Jinping.

“He's called. And I don't think that's a sign of weakness on his behalf,” he said and did not elaborate further.

While Washington has said the trade stand-off with China is economically untenable and already offered tariff exemptions to some electronic goods, China has repeatedly said it is willing to fight to the end unless the US lifts its 145 per cent tariffs.