The senior economic officials of the United States and China will meet Sunday in Geneva for their second day of high -risk negotiations, discussions that aim to relieve the mood of tension of President Trump’s commercial war.
The conversations have important implications for the global economy, which has been shaken by the tariffs that the United States and China have imposed in recent months. Trump has imposed a minimum or 145 percent rate on all Chinese imports, while China has reached US products with an import tax of 125 percent.
Such punitive levies are already interrupting world supply chains. American companies are struggling to obtain products from different countries from China, while Chinese factories are looking for ways to surround the United States rates and export more to Southeast Asia. At the same time, many US companies weigh how much prices can increase to help compensate for tariff costs.
Economists have warned that the commercial dispute will slow down global growth and fuel inflation, potentially tilting the United States in a recession. These economic fears have pressed Mr. Trump to look for an agreement with China.
After approximately seven hours of conversations on Saturday, the United States said it would not issue any formal statement on the procedures.
Trump praised the initial conversations as a success.
“A very good meeting today with China, in Switzerland,” Trump wrote in Truth Social. “Many things discussed, much more, a total negotiated restart in a friendly but constructive way.”
The Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Besent and Jamieson Greer, the commercial representative of the United States, lead the conversations for Washington. For Beijing, the negotiations are being directed by He Lifeng, the Vice President of Economic Policy of China.
Effective tariffs cut trade between the two largest economies in the world.
Before meetings, Trump suggested that he would be open to loosening tariffs at 80 percent from 145 percent. However, the White House spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, said China would have to make concessions to reduce rates.
The Trump administration accused China of unfairly subsidizing the key sectors of its economy and flooding the world with cheap goods. The United States has also pressed China to take more aggressive measures to stop exports of precursors for fentanyl, a drug that has killed tens of thousands of Americans.
China has been firm in saying that it does not intend to make commercial concessions in response to Trump’s tariffs. The authorities have insisted that the nation participate in conversations at the request of the United States.
The commercial conversations of this weekend were destined to prepare the scenario for broader economic negotiations between the two countries. Economists have a skeptical bone that it is likely to be fast treatment.
“We believe that the conclusion is to reduce the expectations of what could arise from the conversations between US and Chinese officials this weekend,” wrote Nancy Vanden Houten, an American economist at Oxford Economics, in a research note on Saturday.
Mrs. Vanden Houten explained that even if the United States reduces the tariff rate of Chinese imports to 80 percent, the general effective tariff rate for imports would be three times greater than the projections since when Trump was chosen.
But Mr. Trump appears on the list of any concession made by China as a victory for the United States.
Reiterating his call to China to open their markets to US companies on Saturday, Trump declared: “Great progress made!”
Amy Chang Chien Taipei contributed reports, Taiwan.
