US-China trade talks to start this week

by Saleha Mohsin and Catherine Lucey

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will travel later this week to Switzerland for trade talks with China led by Vice Premier He Lifeng, seeking to de-escalate a tariff standoff that has threatened to hammer both economies.

The travel was announced in statements Tuesday from the Chinese and US governments. It will be the first confirmed trade talks between the countries since President Donald Trump announced punishing levies of as high as 145% on China that were met with retaliatory rates of 125% from Beijing.

Bessent, in an interview on Fox News, said the current tariff rates aren’t sustainable and were the equivalent of a trade embargo. The talks on Saturday and Sunday will center on de-escalation rather than a big trade deal. 

“We’ve got to de-escalate before we move forward,” Bessent said. “We don’t want to decouple, what we want is fair trade.”

The US should “show sincerity” in the talks, correct wrong practices and resolve the concerns of both sides through “equal consultation,” China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement after the talks were announced. China agreed to engage with the US after evaluation of calls from the American side and China’s own interests, the ministry said.

“If you say one thing and do another, or even attempt to continue to coerce and blackmail under the guise of talks, China will never agree, let alone sacrifice its principled position and international fairness and justice to seek any agreement,” the ministry said.

Girding for fallout from the trade tensions, China on Wednesday reduced its policy rate and lowered the amount of cash lenders must keep in reserve. “The US abuses of tariffs have severely disrupted global economic and trade orders,” China Securities Regulatory Commission Chairman Wu Qing said at a briefing as the monetary easing was announced. 

US equity-index futures rose and the dollar strengthened on confirmation of the trade talks. The tariff spat has rattled markets and threatens to drive up prices for manufacturing equipment as well as affordable goods that many Americans rely on, including clothing and toys.

Bessent acknowledged that Trump’s strategy of strategic uncertainty can be unsettling for markets, though said it is an advantage for the US in talks. He said he and the president know what Trump would accept in talks, but they weren’t going to openly broadcast those details. 

Trump has said in recent days that he is willing to lower tariffs on China at some point, but also said this week that the US is “losing nothing” by not trading with Beijing. He claimed Chinese ships are “turning around in the Pacific Ocean.” 

The president has also said American consumers would be willing to accept higher prices and less selection in order to rebalance the trade relationship with China. 

Young girls don’t need “to have 30 dolls,” Trump said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press. “I think they can have three dolls or four dolls, because what we were doing with China was just unbelievable.”

Earlier Tuesday, Bessent had said that while the US could announce trade deals with some partners as soon as this week, negotiations with China had not yet begun.

Billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones predicted Tuesday that Trump could slash tariffs on China in half — but warned that may not be enough to prevent markets from falling.

“You have Trump, who’s locked in on tariffs; you have the Fed, who’s locked in on not cutting rates,” said Jones, founder of macro hedge fund Tudor Investment Corp., speaking on CNBC. “That’s not good for the stock market.”

Bessent and Greer will also meet with Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter, the Treasury Department and USTR said in a pair of statements.

Copyright Bloomberg News