The United States and China will provide during the day the details of the “substantial progress” announced by Washington on commercial interviews faces a put an end to the devastating war of the duties launched by the American president Donald Trumpwhich has erased billions of equity securities and brought chaos in international trade. The US Treasury Secretary Scott BeSent and the representative for trade Jamieson Greer met the Chinese deputy prime minister He Lifeng and the representative for international trade LI Chenggang in Geneva on Saturday and Sunday.
It was the first time that high officials of the two major world economies met face to face to talk about trade since Trump has imposed new and heavy duties for a total of 145%, while the cumulative duties of the United States on some Chinese goods reached the amazing figure of 245%. As a retaliation, China has imposed duties of 125% on US goods. The commercial dispute between Washington and Beijing has shaken the financial markets and has raised the fear of a slowdown in the global economy and a surge in inflation in the United States. Both sides expressed optimism after yesterday’s conclusion yesterday, without providing many details, and the White House spoke of a new “commercial agreement”.
“We have made substantial progress between the United States and China in the very important commercial interviews,” said Bessent to journalists in Geneva after the second day of discussions. “The talks were productive,” he said, without answering questions but promising a “complete briefing” today on the results. Greer also said that the meetings were “very constructive” and seem to indicate an agreement. “It is important to understand the speed with which we managed to reach an agreement, which reflects the fact that perhaps the differences were not as big as you could think,” he explained. The Chinese delegation also undertaken to issue a joint press release during the day.
For President Donald Trump it was “an excellent meeting”, and spoke of a “total reset” in negotiating “in a friendly, but constructive way”.