The US Minister of Finance says that “considerable progress” in China collective bargaining talks, but details are still scarce

“Significant progress” was made sensitive Talks between the US and Chinese delegations This weekend about tariffs that improve the global economy, the US finance minister announced on Sunday.

Scott Bessent met with the Chinese Vice Prime Minister together with the US trade representative Jamieson Greer for two days. In his explanation on Sunday, he offered hardly any information about which negotiations were connected to each other, but said that further details would come to a briefing on Monday.

In the meantime, Greer suggested that an agreement had been made but did not provide any details. He and better spoke briefly to reporters as soon as the conversations were wrapped into the stately villa, which serves as the residence of the Swiss ambassador in the United Nations in Geneva, but did not ask any questions.

“It is important to understand how quickly we could agree, which reflects that the differences may not be as far as it might have thought,” said Greer.

However, he also emphasized that the priority of the TOP Trump management closes the US trade deficit with China, which came to a record of $ 263 billion last year.

The conversations that could help stabilize the world markets were secretly wrapped by the pats situation of the US China and took place in the magnificent “Villa-Saladin” with a view of the Lake Geneva Denf. According to the Geneva government, the Swiss state was reused in 1973 in 1973.

The hope is that the two countries will reduce the massive taxes.

President Trump completed on Saturday evening on his social media after the first day of the meetings and said “great progress” was made.

“A very good meeting with China in Switzerland today,” said Trump. “Many discussed things that have agreed a lot. A total reset that was negotiated in a friendly but constructive manner. We want to see both China and the USA an opening of China for American business.”

In an interview with NBC News last week, Mr. Trump, Chinese official “want to make a deal very bad. We will see how it all turns out, but it has to be a fair deal.” The President also said that he would expect to reduce the tariffs in China “at some point”.

In the meantime, Chinese officials have announced that it would negotiate the USA with the United States, but the Trump government has pushed to first fall their “one -sided” tariffs.

Mr. Trump raised US tariffs in China last month Too combined 145%And China resounded by making American imports with a delivery of 125%. Customs, which essentially identify the boycott of the countries on the products of the other, and disrupted trading, which exceeded 660 billion dollars last year.

Before the talks began, Mr. Trump proposed on Friday that the United States could reduce its tariffs in China, and said in a social contribution to the truth that “80% tariff seems to be correct! To Scott. “

Sun Yun, director of the China program in the Stimson Center, found that it will be the first time that he and better entertained. She doubts that the Geneva meeting will achieve all the content.

“The best scenario is that the two sides agree to de -escalate on the … tariffs at the same time,” she said, adding that even a small reduction would send a positive signal. “It can't just be words.”

Since his return in January in January in January, he has used aggressive tariffs as his favorite economy. For example, he has raised a tax of 10% on imports from almost every country in the world.

But the fight with China was the most intense. His tariffs in China include a 20% load that is supposed to put Beijing under pressure to stop the flow of the synthetic opioid fenanyl in the USA. The remaining 125% contain a dispute that goes back to Mr. Trump's first term and is charged in China in China, which means that the overall tariffs can exceed 145% for some Chinese goods.

During Mr. Trump's first term, the United States claimed that China used unfair tactics in order to get an advantage in advanced technologies such as Quantum Computing and driverless cars. These allegations include that US and other foreign companies are forced to hand over business secrets in exchange for access to the Chinese market. Use government funds to subsidize domestic technology companies; and direct theft of sensitive technologies.

These problems were never completely solved. After almost two years of negotiations, the United States and China made a so-called phase 1 agreement in January 2020. The United States agreed not to work with even higher tariffs for China, and Beijing agreed to buy more American products. The difficult problems – such as China's subsidies – have been left for future negotiations.

But China did not get through with the promised purchases, partly because Covid-19 disturbed the global trade shortly after the announcement of the 1-armistice phase.

The fight for China's technology policy is now being resumed.

Mr. Trump is also excited by the massive trade deficit of America with China, which last year at 263 billion US dollars.

In Switzerland, Bessent and Greer also met with Swiss President Karin Keller Sotter on Friday.

Last month, Mr. Trump exposed plans to beat 31% tariffs for Swiss goods – more than the 20% of the taxes that he was in vain for exports from the European Union. At the moment he has reduced these taxes to 10%, but warned that he could raise them again.

The government in Bern is pursuing a cautious approach. But it warned of the effects on important Swiss industries such as watches, coffee capsules, cheese and chocolate.

“An increase in trade voltages is not in the interest of Switzerland. Countermeasures against US tariffs would mean the costs for the Swiss economy, especially by making imports from the USA more expensive,” said the government last week and added that the executive is not planning to force countermeasures at the moment. “

On Saturday, Bessent said that trade talks with Switzerland were “very productive” and he was “optimistic about the speed of these negotiations”, citing Mr. Trump Trade agreement with Great Britain That is still completed.

“I am glad that we have agreed on accelerated trade talks and we assume that a detailed Swiss proposal will be presented to Ambassador Greer until next week,” wrote Bessent on social media. “Thanks to President Trump's guidelines, Swiss companies have given their interest in investing CHF 150-200 billion in new US investments, and we look forward to our continued discussions.”

According to the European Union, the United States is the second largest trading partner of Switzerland-DEM 27-member land block, which almost surrounds the wealthy Alpine Land of more than 9 million. The US trade in goods and services has quadrupled in the past two decades, the government said.

The Swiss government said that Switzerland abolished all industrial tariffs on January 1 of last year, which means that 99% of all goods from the USA can be imported into the Switzerland-Duty-Free.

Willie James Inman

contributed to this report.