China has denied any suggestion it's in active negotiations with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump over tariffs, saying any notion of progress in the matter is as groundless as “trying to catch the wind.

"They had a meeting this morning," Trump told reporters, declining to say to whom he was referring. "It doesn't matter who 'they' is. We may reveal it later, but they had meetings this morning, and we've been meeting with China.

China exempted some U.S. imports from its steep tariffs in a sign on Friday that the trade war between the two countries could be easing, though China quickly knocked down U.S. President Donald Trump's assertion that negotiations were underway.