US-China resume trade dialogue
- The U.S. and China restarted senior trade talks in Geneva on May 10-12, 2025, with Scott Bessent, Jamieson Greer, and He Lifeng leading. - The concrete result was a 90-day tariff truce: U.S. duties on Chinese goods fell from 145% to 30%, while China cut rates to 10%. - Markets cheered, but this was a pause, not a settlement — the bigger fight over tariffs, export controls, and trust stayed open.
Trade talks are back — and this time there was an actual result, not just a photo-op. In Geneva on May 10-12, 2025, senior U.S. and Chinese officials sat down for the first high-level tariff talks of the latest trade blowup. They came out with a 90-day pause and a sharp temporary rollback in the newest duties. That matters because tariffs had climbed so high they were starting to look less like bargaining chips and more like a partial trade embargo. ### Who actually met? The U.S. side was led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. China sent Vice Premier He Lifeng, Beijing’s top economic negotiator for this file. That lineup matters because it signals these were not technical staff talks — they were top-tier talks with authority to cut at least an interim deal. ### What did they agree to? Basically, both sides hit pause on the most extreme tariff escalation for 90 days. The joint statement said the U.S. would suspend 24 percentage points of the new April tariff layer for 90 days while keeping a 10% rate in place, and it would remove later modified rates tied to the April 8 and April 9 orders. China mirrored that structure on its side. ### What do those numbers mean in plain English? In market shorthand, the headline numbers were much easier to grasp: U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods dropped from 145% to 30%, and China’s tariffs on U.S. goods dropped to 10%. That is still not free trade. Not even close. But it is a huge step down from rates so high that many shipments simply stopped making economic sense. ### Why did markets rally? Because investors were pricing in a worst-case spiral — fewer shipments, higher costs, and another shock to global growth. A tariff truce does not solve the underlying fight, but it lowers the immediate odds of supply-chain seizures and retaliatory escalation. That is one. ### So is the trade war over? No — this is the catch. The Geneva deal was explicitly temporary, and both governments framed it as a way to keep talking, not as a final settlement. The joint statement leaned on “continued discussions,” which is diplomatic code for: we stopped the bleeding, but we did not fix the wound. ### What is still unresolved? A lot. Tariffs remained above pre-escalation levels even after the rollback. And tariffs are only one layer of the conflict. Export controls, industrial policy, tech restrictions, and the basic trust problem between Washington and Beijing all sides still need rules they can plan around. ### Why does the 90-day clock matter? Because deadlines force choices. By May 14, 2025, both sides were supposed to implement the agreed tariff changes, and then the countdown started on whether negotiators could turn a truce into something more durable. A short pause can calm markets fast. It can also recreate the same panic 90 days later if the talks stall. ### Bottom line The real news was not just that Washington and Beijing talked again. It was that they talked and backed away from tariff levels that were starting to break normal trade. But this was a ceasefire, not peace — useful, market-friendly, and fragile.
