Trump weighs $30bn tariff cuts to stabilise U.S.-China trade at Beijing summit

President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping opened talks in Beijing this week with a limited trade package under discussion after a year of tariffs, export controls and supply disruptions strained commerce between the world’s two largest economies. Officials on both sides are weighing cuts to tariffs on roughly $30 billion of imports each, according to Reuters, alongside a new mechanism for non-sensitive goods that would sit outside the countries’ national-security disputes. The proposals under discussion do not amount to a broad settlement of the trade conflict. They would instead carve out a narrower channel for trade in sectors both governments judge less sensitive. ### How big is the tariff-cut proposal under discussion? The figure under discussion is about $30 billion of imports from each side, according to four people familiar with the Trump administration’s objectives cited by Reuters. Those people said the idea is a $30 billion-for-$30 billion reduction in trade barriers as the starting framework for a new arrangement. Reuters reported it was still unclear whether Trump and Xi would identify the specific goods in Beijing or leave that to later meetings. (usnews.com) Wendy Cutler, a former U.S. Trade Representative negotiator who now heads the Asia Society Policy Institute in Washington, told an Asia Society forum that both sides were “coalescing around” a $30 billion to $50 billion basket of goods for reduced tariffs or other barriers, according to Reuters’ account of her remarks. Cutler said the non-sensitive basket now makes up only a small share of overall U.S.-China trade. (usnews.com) ### What is the “managed trade” idea supposed to do? U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer first raised the idea in March as a “deliverable” for the summit, Reuters reported. The mechanism, described in the Reuters report as a “Board of Trade,” would focus on non-sensitive goods that both governments could trade without crossing national-security red lines. (usnews.com) Greer told Fox Business Network last week that Washington was not trying to make China change how it governs or manages its economy. He said the goal was to find where the two countries could “optimize trade” to achieve more balance, and he compared the proposed mechanism to an “adapter” connecting two different systems, according to Reuters’ report of the interview. (usnews.com) ### What would stay in place even if the two sides agree? Broad tariffs and export controls tied to national-security-sensitive technologies would remain in place under the approach described by Reuters. The shift, Reuters reported, is that Washington is no longer pressing Beijing in these talks to remake its state-directed, export-led economic model into one closer to the U.S. system. (usnews.com) China also continues to maintain additional tariffs on U.S. goods, while the United States still has earlier Trump-era duties on a range of Chinese consumer products, according to Reuters’ reporting carried by other outlets. That means any agreement reached in Beijing would cover only a slice of the wider tariff structure built up over years. (usnews.com) ### How much has U.S.-China goods trade already shrunk? U.S. Census Bureau data show total U.S. goods trade with China fell to about $414.7 billion in 2025 from about $582.0 billion in 2024. The U.S. goods trade deficit with China narrowed to about $202.1 billion in 2025 from about $295.5 billion in 2024, according to the same data. Those figures underscore the scale of the contraction already in place before the Beijing summit. (zawya.com) Through March 2026, Census Bureau data show U.S. exports to China at about $27.4 billion and imports at about $60.9 billion. ### Who has been preparing the summit package? Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng met for three hours in Incheon, South Korea, on Wednesday to lay the groundwork for the economic proposals Trump and Xi were set to discuss in Beijing, Reuters reported. (census.gov) Reuters said neither side issued a statement after that preliminary meeting. Beijing’s summit discussions are expected to determine whether the two governments move from a framework to a list of actual products. Reuters reported that if Trump and Xi do not define the goods this week, that work would fall to subsequent meetings by their trade and economic teams. (usnews.com)