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US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says that the US and China have made “substantial progress” on de-escalating the trade war as high-level talks wrapped in Geneva, Switzerland.<\/p>\n
Bessent and China’s vice-premier He Lifeng have been engaged in secretive closed-door discussions all weekend, in the first meeting since US President Donald Trump levied steep tariffs against China in January. <\/p>\n
The treasury secretary did not elaborate on what had been agreed to, but said details would be announced on Monday and that Trump had been updated.<\/p>\n
On Saturday Trump praised the talks for engendering a “total reset” on the relationship between the two countries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In a social media post, the US president described the talks as being “very good” and said change had been “negotiated in a friendly, but constructive, manner”. <\/p>\n
“We want to see, for the good of both China and the U.S., an opening up of China to American business. GREAT PROGRESS MADE!!!” Trump added.<\/p>\n
Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng also praised the “important progress” from the talk, and told reporters in Geneva that the meetings had been substantive, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, inspector general of the World Trade Organization, called the talks “a significant step forward.”<\/p>\n
“I urge both nations to build on this momentum by continuing to develop practical solutions that mitigate tensions, restore predictability, and strengthen confidence in the multilateral trading system,” she said in a statement.<\/p>\n
An escalating trade war between Washington and Beijing has seen the US president hit Chinese imports to the US with tariffs of 145%. China retaliated with levies of 125% on some US goods.<\/p>\n
On Friday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Washington would not lower tariffs unilaterally, and China would need to make its own concessions. <\/p>\n
Both sides issued various other warnings ahead of the meeting, with Beijing saying the US must ease tariffs while Bessent stressed that the focus was on “de-escalation” and this was not a “big trade deal”.<\/p>\n
Chinese state media reported that Beijing had decided to engage with the US after fully considering global expectations, the country’s interests and appeals from American businesses.<\/p>\n
Last month, the BBC found that Chinese exporters were struggling with the US’s tariffs<\/a> – one company, Sorbo Technology, reported that half of its products were normally sold to the US and were now sat in boxes in a warehouse in China. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, the US economy was found to have shrunk in the first three months of the year – contracting at an annual rate of 0.3% – as firms raced to get goods into the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The trade war between China and the US intensified last month after President Trump announced a universal baseline tariff on all imports to the United States, on what he called “Liberation Day”.<\/p>\n Around 60 trading partners, which the White House described as the “worst offenders”, were subjected to higher rates than others. The list included China and the European Union.<\/p>\n Trump said this was payback for years worth of unfair trade policies for the US.<\/p>\n He also separately announced a 25% import tax on all steel and aluminium coming into the US, and a further 25% tariff on all cars and car parts.<\/p>\n It was announced last week that the US and UK had agreed a deal<\/a>, in which the 25% will be cut to 10% for a maximum of 100,000 UK cars – matching the number of cars the UK exported last year.<\/p>\n Cars are the UK’s biggest export to the US, worth about \u00a39bn last year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n