"Substantial progress" in China-US negotiations

The Americans reported "substantial progress" after two days of talks with China in Geneva aimed at reducing trade tensions between the world's two largest economies. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that the talks had achieved "substantial progress," in a brief statement to the press following the two-day meeting with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng.

The trade differences between the two countries, despite being fueled by a tariff war, "are not as great as one might have imagined," Jamieson Greer, the U.S. Trade Representative, added to reporters in Switzerland. The two men took no questions, and Scott Bessent said details of the plan under discussion would be presented on Monday.

On Saturday evening, commenting on the talks in Geneva , US President Donald Trump seemed to want to start from scratch, after imposing ever-increasing tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods imported into the United States. Beijing responded immediately. "A reset was negotiated in a friendly but constructive manner," Donald Trump wrote on the Truth Social network, adding in capital letters and with a heavy use of exclamation points: "GREAT PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE!!!"

On the Chinese side, nothing has leaked except for a line from the Xinhua news agency that described the discussions on the shores of Lake Geneva as "an important step in promoting the resolution of the dispute." However, the delegation is expected to speak on Sunday evening. The importance of the stakes in these discussions was reflected in the high level of representation. The negotiations took place behind closed doors in the residence of the Swiss representative to the United Nations, a luxurious villa nestled on the left bank of Lake Geneva.

"These negotiations reflect the fact that the current state of trade relations, with these prohibitive tariffs, is ultimately not in the interest of either the United States or China," Nathan Sheets, chief economist at Citigroup, told AFP.

The Geneva meeting was the first face-to-face meeting between senior officials from the world's two largest economies since Donald Trump imposed a 145% tariff on goods from China last month, on top of existing tariffs. Beijing, which has promised to fight the tariffs "to the bitter end," retaliated with 125% tariffs on US goods. As a result, bilateral trade has come to a virtual standstill, and markets have experienced violent upheaval.

"It's a lose-lose proposition to have such high tariffs," Nathan Sheets continues. On Friday, Donald Trump made a gesture by suggesting lowering the tariffs he himself imposed on Beijing to 80%. But his spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, was quick to point out that Washington would not lower its taxes unilaterally and that China also had to make concessions.

The mere fact that these discussions are taking place "is good news for trade and financial markets," says Gary Hufbauer of the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE). However, this expert is "very skeptical about a return to normal in trade relations between China and the United States."