The US Treasury Secretary and the first American commercial negotiator began talks with high -ranking Chinese officials in Switzerland on Saturday aimed at defusing a dispute that threatens to reduce trade between the two largest economies in the world and to harm the world economy.
The Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the US trade representative Jamieson Greer began at Geneva meetings with a Chinese delegation led by Vice-Minister He Lifeng.
Diplomats on both sides also confirmed that the talks had started but spoke anonymously. A motorcycle of black cars and vans was seen coming from the home of the Swiss ambassador to the United Nations delegation in the rich city, and a diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the meeting, said the sides met for about two hours before leaving for a previously organized lunch.
The talks took place in the sumptuous 18th century “Villa Saladin” overlooking Lake Geneva. The former succession was bequeathed in the Swiss state in 1973, according to the Government of Geneva.
The prospects for a major breakthrough seem weak. But there is the hope that the two countries will reduce massive taxes – prices – they have slapped the products on the other, a decision that would relieve global financial markets and businesses on both sides of the Pacific Ocean which depend on American -Chinese trade.
US President Donald Trump increased the American prices on China last month to 145% combined, and China retaliated by hitting American imports with a 125% tax. The rates that are high essentially constitute boycott countries the products of the other, disturbing the trade which exceeded last year 660 billion dollars.
Even before the start of the talks, Trump suggested on Friday that the United States could reduce its prices on China, telling in a social article of truth that “the 80% price seems fair!”
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Sun Yun, director of the Chinese program at the Stimson Center, has noted that it will be the first time that he and Bessent spoke. She doubts that the Geneva meeting will produce substantial results.
“The best scenario is that the two parties agree to defuse the … Prices at the same time,” she said, adding that even a small reduction would send a positive signal. “It cannot be words.”
Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has aggressively used prices as his favorite economic weapon. He has, for example, imposed a 10% tax on imports of almost all countries of the world.
But the fight with China was the most intense. His prices on China include a load of 20% intended to put pressure on Beijing to do more to stop the flow of synthetic fentanyl opioid in the United States. The remaining 125% involve a dispute that dates back to the first Mandate of Trump and occurs at the top of the prices he levied from China at the time, which means that total prices on certain Chinese products can exceed 145%.
During Trump’s first term, the United States allegedly alleged that China uses unfair tactics to give itself an advantage in advanced technologies such as quantum IT and driver-free cars. These include forcing the United States and other foreign companies to hand over trade secrets in exchange for access to the Chinese market; Use government money to subsidize interior technology companies; and the outright flight of sensitive technologies.
These problems have never been completely resolved. After almost two years of negotiation, the United States and China have concluded a so-called phase agreement one in January 2020. The United States then agreed not to go ahead with even higher prices on China, and Beijing agreed to buy more American products. Difficult problems – such as China subsidies – have been left for future negotiations.
But China has not succeeded in the promised purchases, in part because COVVI-19 disrupted world trade just after the announcement of the Tharm Truce.
The fight against Chinese technological policy now resumes.
Trump is also agitated by the US massive trade deficit with China, which reached $ 263 billion last year.
Friday in Switzerland, Bessent and Greer also met Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter.
Last month, Trump suspended the slap plans of high prices of 31% on Swiss goods – more than 20% of samples which he plastered during the European Union exports. For the moment, he has reduced these taxes to 10% but could raise them again.
The Bern government adopts a cautious approach. But he warned of the impact on crucial Swiss industries such as watches, coffee capsules, cheese and chocolate.
“An increase in trade tensions is not in the interests of Switzerland. Countermeasures against the United States tariff increases would cause costs to the Swiss economy, in particular by rendering imports from the United States more expensive,” said the government last week, adding that the executive power “therefore does not predict countermeasures at present”.
The government said Swiss exports to the United States on Saturday were subjected to an additional 10% rate, and 21% from Wednesday.
The United States is the second largest trading partner in Switzerland after the EU – the block of 27 members of the country which almost surrounds the rich Alpine country of more than 9 million. The American-diffed trade in goods and services has quadrupled in the past two decades, the government said.
The Swiss government said that Switzerland had abolished all industrial prices on January 1 of last year, which means that 99% of all goods in the United States can be imported into Switzerland.
& Copy 2025 The Associated Press