“Substantial progress” was made sensitive Conversations between US and Chinese delegations This weekend about tariffs that threaten to overturize the global economy, the United States Secretary of the United States said Sunday.
Scott Besent, together with the United States commercial representative, Jamieson Greer, with the Vice Primer Chinese Minister, he, Lifeng in Switzerland, in two days. In his statement on Sunday, he sacrificed information about exactly what negotiations involved, but said that more details would arrive in an informative session on Monday.
Meanwhile, Greer suggested that an agreement had extended, but did not provide details. He and Besent went to the reporters with letters once the conversations had wrapped in the majestic village that serves as a residence of the Swiss ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, but did not take questions.
“It is important to understand how fast we could reach an agreement, which reflects that perhaps the differences were not so great as far as thought,” Greer said.
But he also emphasized that a priority of the Trump Top administration means closing the United States commercial deficit with China, which reaches a record of $ 263 billion last year.
The conversations, which could help stabilize world markets in search of the confrontation between the United States and China, have been wrapped in secret and were taking place in the sumptuous “Villa Saladin” of the eighteenth century in Lake Geneva. The old farm was bequeathed to the Swiss State in 1973, according to the Geneva government.
The hope is that the two countries reduce massive-tarifas taxes: they slapped the assets of others, a movement that would relieve world financial markets and companies on both sides of the Pacific Ocean that depend on trade between the United States and China.
President Trump posted on his social networks on Saturday night after he concluded the first day of meetings, saying that “great progress was made.”
“A very good meeting today with China, in Switzerland,” Trump said. “Many things discussed, much more than a total negotiated restart in a friendly but constructive way. We want to see, for the good of China and the United States, an opening of China to US businesses.”
In an interview with NBC News last week, Trump said that Chinese officials “want to make a very bad treatment. We’ll see how all that is, but it has to be a fair treatment.” The president also said he hoped to reduce tariffs on China “at some point.”
Meanwhile, Chinese officials have said they are open to negotiate with the US in commerce, but pressed the Trump administration to eliminate their “unilateral” tariffs first.
Trump last month raised American tariffs about China to a combined 145%and China retaliates when reaching US imports with a 125%tax. Tariffs that have a large essential amount to the country boycotting the products of others, which interrupted the trade that exceeded $ 660 billion last year.
Even before the conversations ate, Trump suggested on Friday that the United States could reduce their tariffs on China, saying in a social publication of the truth that “80% of the rate seems correct! Until Scott″
Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, said it will be the first time he and Besent talk. She doubts the gin meeting will produce substantive results.
“The best scenario is that the two parties agree to decline in the … rates at the same time,” he said, adding that even a small reduction would send a positive signal. “It can’t be just words.”
Since he returned to the White House in January, Trump has aggressively used tariffs as his favorite economic weapon. He has imposed a 10% tax on imports from almost all countries in the world.
But the fight with China has been the most intense. Its tariffs on China include a 20% load aimed at pressing Beijing to make more to stop the flow of synthetic opioid fentanyl to the United States. The remaining 125% implies a dispute that dates back to Mr. Trump’s first mandate and reaches the tariffs he raised over China at the time, which means that total tariffs of some Chinese products can exceed 145%.
Duration The first mandate of Mr. Trump, the United States alleged that China said that China uses unfair tactics to give an advantage to advanced technologies such as quantum computing and drianaveress cars. These accusations include forcing the US and other foreign companies to deliver commercial secrets in exchange for access to the Chinese market; Use government money to subsidize national technology companies; and direct theft of sensitive technologies.
Those problems were never completely solved. After almost two years of negotiation, the United States and China reached the so -called one -phase phase in January 2020. The United States will not continue with even higher tariffs in China, and Beijing agreed to buy more American products. Difficult problems, such as China’s subsidies, were left for future negotiations.
But China did not arrive with the promised purchases, partly because Covid-19 interrupted the global trade just after the truce of phase one was announced.
The struggle on China’s technological policy now resumes.
Trump is also agitated by the mass commercial deficit of the United States with China, which reached $ 263 billion last year.
In Switzerland on Friday, Bessert and Greer also with Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter.
Last month, Mr. Trump suspended the plans to slapped 31% of the tariffs of the Swiss goods, more than 20% of the taxes that were entered in the exports of the European Union. For now, he has reduced those taxes to 10%, but warned that he could raise them again.
The government in Bern is adopting a cautious approach. But he has warned about the impact on crucial Swiss industries such as watches, coffee, cheese and chocolate capsules.
“An increase in commercial tensions is not in the interests of Switzerland. The countermeasures against the increases in the United States rate would entail costs for the Swiss economy, particularly by making imports from the United States more expensive,” said the government last week, adding that it is the executive and countermeated today. “
On Saturday, Beart said that commercial conversations with Switzerland were “very productive”, and was “optimistic about the speed of these negotiations”, citing Mr. Trump’s Commercial Agreement with the United Kingdom That is still definitive.
“I am slippery that we have agreed to accelerate commercial conversations, and we hope that a detailed Swiss proposal will be presented to Ambassador Greer next week,” Besent wrote on social networks. “Swiss companies have indicated their interest in investing Chf 150-200 billion in new US investments thanks to President Trump’s policies, and we expect our continuous conversations.”
The United States is the second largest commercial partner of Switzerland after the European Union, the block of countries of 27 members that almost surrounds the rich alpine country of more than 9 million. The US trade and services. UU. It has quadrupled in the last two decades, said the government.
The Swiss government said Switzerland abolished all industrial tariffs on January 1 of last year, which means that 99% of all assets in the United States can be imported to Switzerland’s tax.
Contributed to this report.