Beijing and Washington have both hailed the progress made at the end of a weekend of closed-door discussions in Switzerland aimed at de-escalating trade tensions sparked by US President Donald Trump’s aggressive worldwide tariff rollout in March and China’s retaliation.
Following the talks on Sunday at the Geneva villa of the Swiss ambassador to the United Nations, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters: “I’m happy to report that we’ve made substantial progress between the United States and China in the very important trade talks.”
“The talks were productive,” he added.
Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who also took part in the two days of closed-door talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, said that the differences between the sides were “not so large as maybe thought”.
He Lifeng also lauded what he called “important progress” in the trade talks with the US.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva, he said the atmosphere of the talks with Bessent and Greer had been candid, in-depth, and substantive, echoing similar language from the US delegation.
Both countries said they would put out a joint statement on the talks on Monday.
After the first day of negotiations, Trump had posted on his social network Truth Social that the discussions had been “very good”, describing them as “a total reset negotiated in a friendly, but constructive, manner”.
Beijing had yet to comment Sunday, but on Saturday, Chinese state news agency Xinhua described the talks as “an important step in promoting the resolution of the issue”.
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