The White House announced a “China trade deal” in a Sunday statement, but did not disclose details.
Trump suggests lowering tariffs on China to 80% ahead of trade talks
In a social media post, President Donald Trump suggested lowering tariffs on China from 145% to 80% ahead of trade negotiations.
WASHINGTON − Top Trump administration officials said they reached a trade agreement with China after two days of negotiations in Geneva, marking potentially a massive victory for President Donald Trump amid his trade war with Beijing.
The White House announced a “China trade deal” in a May 11 statement, but did not disclose details. The agreement came together sooner that most observers expected after Trump’s 145% tariffs on China virtually halted $600 billion in annual trade between the world’s two largest economies.
“It’s important to understand how quickly we were able to come to agreement, which reflects that perhaps the differences were not so large as maybe thought,” U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer said from Geneva.
The two days of meetings in Switzerland were the first between top leaders of the United States and China since Trump imposed the sweeping tariffs on China, which responded with 125% retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports.
Heading into the weekend trade negotiations, Trump signaled a willingness to drop U.S. tariffs on China to an 80% rate, though it was not immediately clear what level the Trump administration landed on.
“I’m happy to report that we made substantial progress between the United States and China in the very important trade talks,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who led the talks in Geneva, said in a statement. We will be giving details tomorrow, but I can tell you that the talks were productive.”
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.