Top economic officials from the United States and China met on Sunday in Geneva for their second day of high-stakes negotiations, discussions that are aimed at easing tensions stemming from President Trump’s trade war.
The talks have major implications for the global economy, which has been rocked by the tariffs that the United States and China have imposed on each other in recent months. Mr. Trump has imposed a minimum tariff of 145 percent on all Chinese imports, while China has hit American products with a 125 percent import tax.
Though the two governments have taken an outwardly tough position, officials in both countries have indicated they would like to find a path to bring the tariffs down. The tariffs are so punitive they are already disrupting the world’s supply chains.
American companies at risk of bankruptcy are scrambling to source products from countries other than China. Chinese factories are shuttering their doors, or looking for ways around the U.S. tariffs and exporting more to Southeast Asia. At the same time, many U.S. businesses are weighing how much they can increase prices to help offset the tariff costs.
Economists have warned that the trade dispute will slow global growth and fuel inflation, potentially tipping the United States into a recession. Those economic fears have pressured Mr. Trump into seeking a deal with China.
The two sides met to negotiate in historically neutral territory: Geneva, which is also home to the World Trade Organization. Dozens of officials from the countries were camped out on Saturday and Sunday at the residence of the Swiss ambassador to the United Nations, a stately villa that overlooks the lake at the center of the city.
After roughly seven hours of talks on Saturday, the United States said it would not release any formal statement about the proceedings.
Mr. Trump hailed the initial conversations as a success.
“A very good meeting today with China, in Switzerland,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday night. “Many things discussed, much agreed to. A total reset negotiated in a friendly, but constructive, manner.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Jamieson Greer, the U.S. trade representative, are leading the talks for Washington. For Beijing, the negotiations are being led by He Lifeng, China’s vice premier for economic policy.
It’s unclear how many of the outstanding issues between the countries can be immediately resolved. Mr. Trump quickly ratcheted up his tariffs on China in recent months, prompting an aggressive response from the Chinese.
The Trump administration has also accused China of unfairly subsidizing key sectors of its economy and flooding the world with cheap goods. And the United States has been pressuring China to take more aggressive steps to curb exports of precursors for fentanyl, a drug that has killed tens of thousands of Americans.
Mr. Trump initially added a 20 percent tariff to Chinese exports, accusing the country of not doing enough to stop the flow of fentanyl to the United States. When the president announced global tariffs at the beginning of April, he added another 34 percent tariff on China. And when China retaliated with its own measures, Mr. Trump quickly raised tariffs on Chinese products to a minimum of 145 percent.
Ahead of the meetings in Geneva, Mr. Trump suggested that he would be open to lowering those tariffs to 80 percent. But the White House spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, said that China would have to make concessions for the tariffs to be reduced.
The United States is expected to press China not just on the issue of tariffs and fentanyl shipments, but also on its other export bans that threaten U.S. companies. In response to Mr. Trump’s trade moves, Beijing placed export restrictions on key minerals and magnets, which are needed by companies that manufacture electric vehicles, semiconductors, aircraft, missiles, submarines and other military technologies.
China has been steadfast in saying it does not intend to make trade concessions in response to Mr. Trump’s tariffs. Officials there have insisted that the nation agreed to engage in talks at the request of the United States. U.S. officials have disputed that.
The trade talks this weekend were intended to set the stage for broader economic negotiations between the two countries.
“We think the takeaway is to lower expectations for what might emerge from talks between U.S. and Chinese officials this weekend,” Nancy Vanden Houten, U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, wrote in a research note on Saturday.
Ms. Vanden Houten explained that even if the United States reduced the tariff rate on Chinese imports to 80 percent, the overall effective tariff rate for imports would be three times higher than projections from when Mr. Trump was elected. Some analysts and executives have said that tariffs above 50 percent are generally high enough to prohibit trade.
But Mr. Trump appears poised to declare that any concessions made by China are a win for the United States.
Reiterating his call for China to open up its markets to American companies on Saturday, Mr. Trump declared: “GREAT PROGRESS MADE!!!”
Amy Chang Chien contributed reporting from Taipei, Taiwan.
