Top economic officials from the United States and China will meet on Sunday in Geneva for their second day of high-stakes negotiations, discussions that are aimed at easing tensions stemming from President Trump’s trade war.
The talks have major implications for the global economy, which has been rocked by the tariffs that the United States and China have imposed on each other in recent months. Mr. Trump has imposed a minimum tariff of 145 percent on all Chinese imports, while China has hit American products with a 125 percent import tax.
Such punitive levies are already disrupting the world’s supply chains. American companies are scrambling to source products from countries other than China, while Chinese factories are looking for ways around the U.S. tariffs and exporting more to Southeast Asia. At the same time, many U.S. businesses are weighing how much they can increase prices to help offset the tariff costs.
Economists have warned that the trade dispute will slow global growth and fuel inflation, potentially tipping the United States into a recession. Those economic fears have pressured Mr. Trump into seeking a deal with China.
After roughly seven hours of talks on Saturday, the United States said it would not release any formal statement about the proceedings.
Mr. Trump hailed the initial conversations as a success.
“A very good meeting today with China, in Switzerland,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Many things discussed, much agreed to. A total reset negotiated in a friendly, but constructive, manner.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Jamieson Greer, the United States Trade Representative, are leading the talks for Washington. For Beijing, the negotiations are being led by He Lifeng, China’s vice premier for economic policy.
The tariffs effectively cut off trade between the world’s two largest economies.
Ahead of the meetings, Mr. Trump suggested that he would be open to lowering the tariffs to 80 percent from 145 percent. However, the White House spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, said that China would have to make concessions for the tariffs to be reduced.
The Trump administration has accused China of unfairly subsidizing key sectors of its economy and flooding the world with cheap goods. The United States has also been pressuring China to take more aggressive steps to curb exports of precursors for fentanyl, a drug that has killed tens of thousands of Americans.
China has been steadfast in saying it does not intend to make trade concessions in response to Mr. Trump’s tariffs. Officials have insisted that the nation agreed to engage in talks at the request of the United States.
The trade talks this weekend were intended to set the stage for broader economic negotiations between the two countries. Economists have been skeptical that a quick deal is likely.
“We think the takeaway is to lower expectations for what might emerge from talks between U.S. and Chinese officials this weekend,” Nancy Vanden Houten, U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, wrote in a research note on Saturday.
Ms. Vanden Houten explained that even if the United States reduces the tariff rate on Chinese imports to 80 percent, the overall effective tariff rate for imports would be three times higher than projections from when Mr. Trump was elected.
But Mr. Trump appears poised to tout any concessions made by China as win for the United States.
Reiterating his call for China to open up its markets to American companies on Saturday, Mr. Trump declared: “GREAT PROGRESS MADE!!!”
Alan Rappeport is an economic policy reporter for The Times, based in Washington. He covers the Treasury Department and writes about taxes, trade and fiscal matters.
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