The United States and China have agreed with a temporary but important softening of the prices imposed in the past two months, the country said in a joint statement shared by the White House, announcing significant success in the trade negotiations that met this weekend.
In the joint declaration published early Monday morning, the two parties said they had agreed that “Current discussions have the potential to respond to the concerns of each party in their economic and commercial relationship “and that” go forward in the spirit of mutual opening, continuous communication, cooperation and mutual respect “, the two parties had engaged in a suspension of 90 days of most of the samples imposed since early April.
“We have concluded an agreement on a 90-day break,” said the American Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, to journalists in Geneva, Switzerland, where he spent the weekend during meetings with Chinese counterparts. He said Washington and Beijing would reduce their reciprocal prices of 115 percentage points for three months to give the negotiation room to move forward.
Fabrice Coffrini / AFP / Getty
Bessent said temporary reductions would effectively reduce the level of American prices still in place on Chinese products to around 30%, while China reduced its 10%American imports.
The imposition of white house samples amounting to some 145% on all goods imported from China, and the 125% Beijing reprisals on American imports, had thrown a shadow on the global financial markets while the two largest economies in the world spent the beginning of spring ending up in a business war.
High prices had practically frozen trade between the United States and China, the main American ports reporting a drastic drop in traffic.
“The consensus of the two delegations this weekend is neither the team that wants a decoupling,” said Bessent to journalists in Geneva on Monday. “And what had happened with these very high prices … was an embargo, the equivalent of an embargo, and none of the parties wants it. We want trade. We want a more balanced business. And I think the two parties are determined to get there. ”
Basic products and monetary markets in Asia and beyond were considerably supported to the news of a breakthrough in negotiations on Monday.
Speaking on Sunday, Bessent said that there had been “substantial progress” in the talks between us and Chinese officials in Geneva, while Greer has picked up that an agreement had been concluded but did not offer any detail.
“It is important to understand how fast we have agreed, which reflects that the differences were perhaps not so great on this subject,” Greer to journalists on Sunday.