The Secretary in the United States of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, said that the United States and China have made “substantial progress” during the de-escalation of trade war as a high-level talks wrapped in Geneva, Switzerland.
The vice-president of Bessent and China, He Lifeng, embarked on secret discussions behind closed doors all weekend, during the first meeting since US President Donald Trump took steep prices against China in January.
The Treasury Secretary did not explain what had been agreed, but said that the details would be announced on Monday and that Trump had been updated.
Trump praised the talks on Saturday for generating a “total reset” on the relationship between the two countries.
In an article on social networks, the American president described talks as “very good” and said that the change had been “negotiated in a friendly but constructive manner”.
“We want to see, for the good of China and the United States, an opening of China for American affairs. Great progress made !!!” Added Trump.
Chinese Deputy Prime Minister, He Lifeng, also praised the “significant progress” of the conference and told journalists in Geneva that meetings had been substantial, Reuters reported.
Ngozi Okonjo-iWweala, Inspector General of the World Trade Organization, described the talks as “significant not forward”.
“I urge the two nations to rely 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.
A commercial escalation between Washington and Beijing saw the American president hit Chinese imports to the United States with 145%prices. China retaliated with 125% samples from certain American products.
Friday, the white house press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Washington would not increase the prices unilaterally and that China should make its own concessions.
The two parties published various other warnings before the meeting, Beijing saying that the United States had to mitigate the prices while Bessente stressed that the accent was on the “de-escalation” and it was not a “big trade deal”.
The Chinese state media reported that Beijing had decided to engage with the United States after fully considered global expectations, interests and calls from the country of American companies.
Last month, The BBC noted that Chinese exporters were struggling with American prices – A company, Sorbo Technology, said half of its products were normally sold in the United States and were now seated in boxes in a warehouse in China.
Meanwhile, the US economy has proven to have decreased in the first three months of the year – contract at an annual rate of 0.3% – while companies ran to put goods in the country.
The trade war between China and the United States intensified last month after President Trump announced a universal basic rate on all imports in the United States, on what he called “Liberation Day”.
About 60 business partners, which the White House described as “worst offenders”, were subjected to higher rates than the others. The list included China and the European Union.
Trump said it was a return on investment for years of unfair trade policies for the United States.
He also announced an import tax of 25% separately on all steel and aluminum in the United States, and an additional 25% rate on all cars and car parts.
It was announced last week that the The United States and the United Kingdom had concluded an agreementIn which the 25% will be reduced to 10% for a maximum of 100,000 British cars – corresponding to the number of cars that the United Kingdom exported last year.
Cars are the largest export in the United Kingdom to the United States, worth around 9 billion pounds Sterling last year.
