Specifically points the finger to the Wall St Journal

The statement reads:

"Washington, DC - Bob Davis and Lingling Wei at the Wall Street Journal, based on anonymous sources, have reported at least three times this week that the United States negotiators offered to cut by as much as one half the tariff rates on approximately $360 billion of Chinese imports in exchange for certain purchases.

While we do not comment on the content of negotiations, we have said publicly and on the record that this is totally false, untrue and baseless.

It did not happen. In addition and to be completely clear, we have personally, and on the record, told Mr. Davis and another Wall Street Journal reporter repeatedly that this is utterly false. No such offer was ever made to China by the United States. There is not a single knowledgeable American negotiator who would support this falsehood. Further, there is no Chinese negotiator who could honestly be this source.

We will not speculate on why the Chinese or an American uninvolved with these negotiations would manipulate the story. This is another example of reporting on an important alleged event based on secret sources, some of which may have obvious bias. The Wall Street Journal should make very clear that those actually involved for the United States have so clearly indicated that they are untrue, fabricated falsehoods. It should also expose possible biases of the anonymous source."

This was the article in question that they are specifically referencing. To be fair to the WSJ, there will also never be any proof to substantiate the claims made by the USTR above.

Sure, the final end product is a watered down version of what was reported in the article but that is only what was revealed by the Trump administration and not the specific details of what was discussed during the week.

Additionally, this is a rather unusual stance for the USTR to take - that is to call out a news wire on a report - so I'm not sure what are they trying to get at here.

Are they afraid that markets will jump on the headlines and then sell off because they get disappointed by the facts? Because that is not their job.

For those arguing that the WSJ should just disclose their source and the related conversations, I can assure you no news wire will even consider doing so in this day and age.

In a time when sensational journalism is what milks the cow, to sell out one of your anonymous sources will mean that nobody will ever speak to you again and that's just suicide.