Geneva – The US Finance Minister and America’s leading traders will meet with high-ranking Chinese officials in Switzerland This weekend to de -escalate a dispute that reduces the trade between the two largest economies in the world and damages global trade.
Finance Minister Scott Bessent and the US sales representative Jamieson Greer will meet in Geneva with a Chinese delegation under the direction of Vice Premier He Lifeng.
Prospects for a big breakthrough appear dark. But there is hope that the two countries will reduce the massive taxes that have struck each other on the goods of the other, a step that would alleviate the global financial markets and companies on both sides of the Pacific Ocean that depend on the US China trade.
US President Donald Trump has 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, Trump proposed on Friday that the United States could reduce its tariffs on China, and said in a social post of 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. And 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 to the White House in January, Trump has aggressive tariffs used as his favorite economy weapon. For example, he has imposed a 10% tax 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 Trump’s first term and comes to tariffs that he levied in China at the time. This means that the entire tariffs for some Chinese goods can exceed 145%.
During Trump’s first term, the United States claimed that China used unfair tactics to get an advantage in progressive technologies such as quantum computers and driverless cars. This includes handing over to us and other foreign companies 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.
Trump is also excited by the massive trade deficit of America with China, which was 263 billion US dollars last year.
In Switzerland, Bessent and Greer also plan to meet the Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter.
Trump exposed plans last month to beat 31% tariffs for Swiss goods – more than the 20% taxes he plastered for exports from the European Union. At the moment he has reduced these taxes to 10%, but could increase it 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 did not plan not to force countermeasures against time. “
The government said that Swiss exports to the United States are subject to an additional 10% tariff on Saturday and another 21% on Wednesday.
According to the EU, the United States are the second largest trading partner of Switzerland-a 27-Member block, which almost surrounds the wealthy alpine country 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.
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Wiseman and Tang reported from Washington.