U.S. and China hold Paris talks

Trade talks are back in the familiar U.S.-China pattern — smiles in the room, pressure everywhere else. In Paris, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met Vice Premier He Lifeng and trade negotiator Li Chenggang for two days of talks that both sides described in warm terms. The point was not a grand bargain. It was to see whether the two governments could line up a few practical deliverables before a Trump-Xi meeting that has already slipped on the calendar. ### Why Paris? Paris was basically a holding pattern with a purpose. The U.S. and China needed a neutral stop to test whether talks could stay stable enough for a leader summit, and Paris had already been used for this channel in March. The meeting was led on the U.S. side by Bessent and Greer, and on the Chinese side by He Lifeng and Li Chenggang — the same core economic players who would shape any pre-summit package. ### What were they actually talking about? Not the whole trade relationship. Just the pieces that can produce visible wins fast. The discussion centered on possible Chinese purchases of U.S. farm goods, arrangements around critical minerals, and versions of “managed trade” — meaning negotiated buying targets or sector deals rather than a broad reset of tariffs and industrial policy. That is a very specifically transactions, not a deep settlement. ### Why does “managed trade” matter? Because it is the old workaround coming back. When the structural fight is too big — subsidies, technology controls, supply chains, security — both governments fall back on things they can count. Soybean orders. Aircraft orders. Mineral access. Purchase commitments. It is the diplomatic equivalent of agreeing on the easy groceries while ignoring the mortgage. Are tensions easing? Not really. The catch is that the Paris talks are happening while Washington is still rebuilding trade pressure through other legal tools, including fresh Section 301 actions. At the same time, the administration has started refunding tariffs that courts knocked down earlier this year. So the U.S. is talking cooperation with Beijing while also rearming its tariff machinery at home. That is not a contradiction by accident — it is the strategy. ### What is the refund story? It is huge, and weirdly under the radar. The government says importers paid more than $166 billion under tariffs later found unlawful, and refunds have begun reaching companies’ bank accounts, with interest in some cases. Customs had warned that portal glitches and opt-in problems could slow the process, but payments started landing on May 6. That matters because it weakens pressure on China. ### Why is the summit timing slipping? Because trade is no longer the only clock. Reporting around the planned Trump-Xi meeting says the summit moved from late March to mid-May, with the Iran war scrambling White House bandwidth and changing the broader strategic backdrop. That makes the Paris talks look less like a breakthrough and more like maintenance — keeping the