By
Reuters
Published
May 11, 2025
The United States Secretary of the United States, Scott Besent and the trade representative, Jamieson Greer, said Sunday that they reached an agreement with China to reduce the commercial deficit of the United States, describing “substantial progress” in high -risk conversations with Chinese officials, but who did not offer details such as two days of negotiations concluded in Geneva.
Besent told journalists that the details would be announced on Monday and that the president of the United States, Donald Trump, was fully aware of the results of the “productive conversations” with the Vice Primer Chinese Minister, He Lifeng and two Chinese viceced.
Besent and Greer did not mention any plan to reduce US tariffs. 145% in Chinese products and 125% tariffs of China over US assets.
They did not take questions from the journalists.
The United States Treasury Chief has said previously that these tasks are equivalent to a commercial embargo between the two largest economies in the world and must be “displaced.”
Greer described the conclusion of Geneva meetings as “an agreement that we reach our Chinese partners” that will help reduce the commercial deficit of global goods from $ 1.2 billion of $ 1.2.
“And this was, as the secretary pointed out, two very constructive days,” Greer said. “It is important to understand how fast we could reach an agreement, which reflects that perhaps the differences were not as great as perhaps it was thought,” Greer said.
He called the VicePrimer Premier He, the Minister of Commerce Li Chenggang and the Minister of Finance, Liao Min, “difficult negotiators.”
The meeting was the first face -to -face interaction among the senior US and Chinese economic officials since Trump assumed the position and launched a global tariff that began to declare a national emergency about the United States's Fentanyl crisis, imposing a new 20% rate in Chinese products in February.
Trump continued with a “reciprocal” duty of 34% on Chinese imports in April, and the posterior rounds took the tariffs to triple digits, which led to almost $ 600 billion in a bidirectional trade in a dead point.
China had insisted that tariffs be reduced in any conversation. Trump said Friday that an 80% tariff on Chinese products “seems correct”, which suggests for the first time a specific reduction target.
Greer said that many bases were held before Geneva meetings on Saturday and Sunday, and that the result would address the national emergency Trump declared about the growing commercial deficits of the United States.
“We are sure that the agreement that we reach our Chinese partners will help us work to resolve that national emergency,” Greer said.
A White House press release that simply repeated Besent and Greer's brief comments without details executed the headline: “The United States announces China's commercial agreement in Geneva.”
Chinese officials were expected to inform journalists in Geneva later on Sunday night.
Previously, the Economic Advisor of the White House, Kevin Hassett, said the Chinese were “very, very anxious” for participating in discussions and rebuilding commercial relations with the United States.
Hasett also told the Future Morning Fox program that more foreign trade agreements could come with other countries as soon as this week after the limited commercial agreement last week with Great Britain that left 10% of the tasks of the United States in many products in the United Kingdom.
Hasset said he had been informed by the United States Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, in two dozen pending agreements with Ustr Greer.
“Everyone resembles the United Kingdom's offer, but each one is tailored,” said Hasett.
During the night, Trump gave a positive reading of the conversations, saying that the two parties had negotiated “a total restart … in a friendly but constructive way.”
“We want to see, for the sake of China and the United States, an opening of China to US businesses,” Trump published on his Truth social platform. “Great progress made!”
Closed villa
The negotiating teams gathered in the closed town of the UN ambassador of Switzerland, overlooking Lake Geneva in the leafy suburb of Cologny. The Mercedes Negras vans with sirens transported to and from the place, which was bathed in a bright sun.
Neutral Switzerland was chosen as the place after Swiss politicians approaches in recent visits to China and the United States.
Washington is trying to reduce its commercial deficit of goods from $ 295 billion with Beijing and persuade China to renounce what the United States says it is a mercantilist economic model and contributes more to global consumption, a change that would require politically sensitive national reforms.
The official Xinhua news agency in China said in a comment on Saturday that the “reckless abuse of tariffs” of the United States had destabilized the global economic order, but added that the negotiations represented “a positive and necessary step to resolve disagreements and avoid a greater climb.”
With the distrust of Alto, both parties have been interested in not seems weak, and economic analysts had low expectations of an advance.
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