“President Trump, we expect, is going to have a wonderful conversation about the trade negotiations this week with President Xi. That’s our expectation,” he said. Hassett said he was not sure if there was a specific date set for the talks and suggested he wasn’t completely sure talks would happen this week. “You never know in international relations, but my expectation is that both sides have expressed a willingness to talk. And I’d like to also add that people are talking every day, so [U.S. Trade Representative] Jamieson Greer, his team, and President Xi’s team in China, they’re talking every day,” he added. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also said on Sunday that Xi and Trump would talk “very soon.” “I am confident that when President Trump and [Chinese Communist] Party Chairman Xi have a call that this will be ironed out,” he said. “But the fact that they are withholding some of the products that they agreed to release during our agreement — maybe it’s a glitch in the Chinese system, maybe it’s intentional.” Bessent previously said talks between the U.S. and China had stalled. The two sides are trying to iron out a trade deal to avoid a re-intensification of their trade war, which could raise consumer prices on products the U.S. imports from China. China said earlier this month that the two leaders have not had a call “recently.” Trump has not publicly spoken with Xi since a few days before his inauguration. If the two sides don’t work out a deal, the U.S. could return to its 145% tariff on Chinese goods, and China could enforce its 12% levy on some American goods.