The trade spat escalated earlier this month when Trump hiked tariffs on Chinese goods to a whopping 145%. China responded with 125% tariffs on U.S. goods and other countermeasures. “This is a game of chicken,” Yasheng Huang, professor of global economics and management at MIT, told ABC News.

President Donald Trump has said that Chinese President Xi Jinping has called him but did not say if any of those communications took place since he imposed stiff tariffs on the communist nation.