Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday signaled that a de-escalation of the trade war over President Trump’s harsh tariff rates would have to come from China — not the US.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday that he believes that excessively high tariffs between the U.S. and China will have to come down before trade negotiations can proceed but said President Donald Trump would not unilaterally cut tariffs on Chinese imports.

As I repeatedly said, I believe that it’s up to China to de-escalate, because they sell five times more to us than we sell to them,” Bessent said Monday morning on CNBC. So