High-level delegations from the United States and China are to meet in London to try to save a fragile tariffs deal and avert a possible trade war that has already roiled the global economy and sparked fears of recession.
The meeting on Monday follows negotiations in Geneva last month that resulted in a temporary respite in the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. However, the agreement to suspend most of the 100 percent-plus tariffs each had imposed on the other for 90 days has been followed by barbs fired by both sides.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet with a Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier He Lifeng at an undisclosed location in the British capital.
“The meeting should go very well,” US President Donald Trump, who announced the talks on Friday after a phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, wrote on social media.
“We want China and the United States to continue moving forward with the agreement that was struck in Geneva,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Sunday.
While the government of United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer reiterated that it was not involved in the talks in London, a spokesperson said, “A trade war is in nobody’s interests, so we welcome these talks.”
The meeting comes just a few days after Trump and Xi held their first publicly acknowledged telephone call since the Republican returned to the White House in January.
Trump said Thursday’s call had reached a “very positive conclusion”. The US president had previously accused China of violating the Geneva deal and described Xi as “hard to make a deal with”.
Xi was quoted by the state-run news agency Xinhua as saying “correcting the course of the big ship of Sino-US relations requires us to steer well and set the direction”.
Underscoring the impact of the trade war, customs data released on Monday showed Chinese exports to the US plunged by 34.5 percent year-on-year in May, the sharpest drop since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Still, stock markets in Asia, including in China, rose on Monday before the new round of talks.
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