The United States and China on Sunday said that progress had been made after a weekend of talks aimed at de-escalating trade tensions sparked by US President Donald Trump\u2019s aggressive tariff rollout.<\/p>\n
The increasingly ugly trade spat between Washington and Beijing has rocked financial markets and raised fears of a global economic slowdown and an inflationary spike in the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve made substantial progress between the United States and China in the very important trade talks,\u201d US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters in Geneva after the second day of discussions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe talks were productive,\u201d he said, taking no questions but promising a \u201ccomplete briefing\u201d on the outcome on Monday.<\/p>\n
In a statement on Sunday, which did not provide any additional details, the White House hailed what it called a new \u201ctrade deal\u201d with China.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s Vice Premier He Lifeng told reporters the meetings had achieved \u201csubstantial progress,\u201d echoing Bessent\u2019s remarks, and described the atmosphere as \u201ccandid, in-depth and constructive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an important first step,\u201d he said, adding there were plans for a joint communique to be published Monday.<\/p>\n
The two sides have agreed to set up a joint mechanism focused on \u201cregular and irregular communications related to trade and commercial issues\u201d, China\u2019s international trade representative Li Chenggang said at the same briefing.<\/p>\n
Asked if the communique would arrive before financial markets opened, Li replied: \u201cIf the dishes are delicious, timing is not a matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever released, it is going to be big, good news,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The meetings marked the first time senior officials from the world\u2019s two largest economies have met face-to-face over trade since Trump slapped steep new levies on China totalling 145 per cent, with cumulative US duties on some Chinese goods reaching a staggering 245pc.<\/p>\n
In retaliation, China put 125pc tariffs on US goods.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese discussions mark a significant step forward and, we hope, bode well for the future,\u201d World Trade Organisation chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in a statement shortly after her own meeting with He Lifeng.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmid current global tensions, this progress is important not only for the US and China but also for the rest of the world, including the most vulnerable economies,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Devil in the details
\n\u201cIt\u2019s definitely encouraging,\u201d Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) vice president Wendy Cutler told AFP after the talks had concluded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe two sides spent over 15 hours in discussions,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s a long time for two countries to be meeting, and I view that as positive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ahead of the meetings at the discrete villa residence of Switzerland\u2019s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Trump signalled he might lower the tariffs, suggesting on social media that an \u201c80pc tariff on China seems right!\u201d<\/p>\n
However, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later clarified that the United States would not lower tariffs unilaterally. China would also need to make concessions, she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The United States and China on Sunday said that progress had been made after a weekend of talks aimed at de-escalating trade tensions sparked by US President Donald Trump\u2019s aggressive tariff rollout. The increasingly ugly trade spat between Washington and Beijing has rocked financial markets and raised fears of a global economic slowdown and an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9053,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9052"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9054,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9052\/revisions\/9054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}