US and China have both hailed the progress made at the end of two days of talks in Geneva aimed at de-escalating trade tensions sparked by US President, Donald Trump’s aggressive worldwide tariff rollout in March and China’s retaliation.
Following the talks at the Geneva villa of the Swiss Ambassador to the United Nations, US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent told reporters, “I’m happy to report that we’ve made substantial progress between the United States and China in the very important trade talks.”
He added that the talks were productive.
US Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, also took part in the two days of closed-door talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng.
At a news conference later, He, the top Chinese trade official, stated that substantive progress had been made to reach an “important consensus”, according to China’s state-run media.
The Chinese Vice Premier added that the two sides will issue a joint statement agreed during the talks on Monday, May 12, 2025.
He said that the atmosphere of the talks with Bessent and Greer had been candid, in-depth, and substantive, echoing similar language from the US delegation.
The meetings marked the first time that senior officials from the world’s two largest economies have met face-to-face to tackle the topic of trade since Trump slapped steep new levies on China last month, sparking a robust retaliation from Beijing.
The tariffs imposed by Trump on the Asian manufacturing giant since the start of the year currently total 145 percent, with cumulative US duties on some Chinese goods reaching a staggering 245 percent.
In retaliation, China put 125-percent tariffs on US goods.
Financial markets have been on edge for signs of a thaw in the trade war that has already begun to disrupt supply chains, prompt layoffs and raise wholesale prices.
Although Bessent has said the bilateral tariffs were too high and needed to come down in a de-escalation move, he did not offer any details of reductions agreed and took no questions from reporters.
Ahead of the meeting, Trump signalled he might lower the tariffs, suggesting on social media that an “80% Tariff on China seems right!”
US Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, who spoke alongside Bessent, suggested more strongly that a deal had been reached.
“It’s important to understand how quickly we were able to come to agreement, which reflects that perhaps the differences were not so large as maybe thought.
“Just remember why we’re here in the first place. The United States has a massive $1.2tn trade deficit, so the president declared a national emergency and imposed tariffs, and we’re confident that the deal we struck with our Chinese partners will help us to resolve, work toward resolving that national emergency.”
Jamieson Greer
Also, China’s international Trade Representative, Li Chenggang said that the two sides have agreed to set up a joint mechanism focused on “regular and irregular communications related to trade and commercial issues.”
Asked if a communique on the talks would arrive before financial markets opened, Li replied, “If the dishes are delicious, timing is not a matter … Whenever released, it is going to be big, good news.”
Good News For Business, Financial Markets
Gary Hufbauer, a senior non-resident fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said in an interview while the talks were ongoing, that the fact the talks were even happening “is good news for business, and for the financial markets.”
However, Hufbauer cautioned that he was “very sceptical that there will be any return to something like normal US-China trade relations.”
He added that even a tariff rate of 70-80% would still potentially halve bilateral trade.
He opined that among some of the more moderate Trump officials, such as Bessent and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, “there’s a realisation that China is better equipped to deal with this trade war than the US.”
Meanwhile, Wendy Cutler from Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) asserted, “The devil will be in the details,” adding that without the details, it’s hard to assess whether the meeting was successful or not.
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