The talks between China and the United States in Geneva to try to resolve the trade war between the two countries must resume Sunday, Donald Trump having expressed his optimism on the progress made the day before.
“Very good meeting today with China, Switzerland. Many things have been discussed, many have been approved. A reset has been negotiated in a friendly but constructive manner. We wish, for the good of China and the United States, that China opens up to American companies. Great progress has been made! ”Wrote the American president on Saturday evening on the Truth Social network.
A sign of the importance of the issues, the two capitals sent high-ranking representatives to Geneva this weekend for these negotiations: the US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the representative to trade Jamieson Greer and the Chinese Deputy Prime Minister He Lifeng.
“These negotiations reflect the fact that the current state of trade relations, with these prohibitive customs rights, is ultimately in the end in the interest either of the United States or China,” said AFP Nathan Sheets, chief economist at Citigroup.
These discussions are the first face -to -face meeting of senior officials from the two largest world economies since Donald Trump imposed a surcharge of 145% last month on goods from China, in addition to pre -existing customs duties.
Beijing, who promised to fight these surcharges “until the end”, retaliated with 125% customs duties on American products.
Result: bilateral exchanges are practically stopped and the markets have experienced violent upheavals.
“Loser-lord”
“It is a losing-perceive proposal to have such high customs duties,” says Nathan Sheets.
Friday, Donald Trump had made a gesture by suggesting to lower the customs duties that he himself imposed on Beijing at 80%.
But his spokesperson Karoline Leavitt hastened to clarify that Washington would not abuse his taxes unilaterally and that China also had to make concessions.
The discussions had started on Saturday in Geneva in the opulent villa of the permanent representative of Switzerland with the United Nations in Geneva, on the shores of Lake Geneva.
“The contact established in Switzerland is an important step in promoting the resolution of litigation,” said official news agency China Nouvelle.
The simple fact that these discussions take place “is good news for trade and financial markets”, estimates Gary Hufbauer, of the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIe). However, this expert is “very skeptical of a return to a normal situation in trade relations between China and the United States”.
“Customs duties of 145% are absolutely prohibitive,” he continues, adding that even lowered to 70 or 80% as it is about, the level of transactions between the two countries would be divided by two.
The Chinese Deputy Prime Minister arrived in Geneva with it seems an asset: Beijing announced on Friday a leap of 8.1% of its exports in April, a figure four times higher than the forecasts of the analysts. But exports to the United States fell by almost 18%.
