After two days of high-level negotiations, the United States and China announced significant progress on their bilateral trade agenda this Sunday (May 11.05.2025, XNUMX), as part of a new attempt to reduce economic tensions between the two powers.
El U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, said: “MI am pleased to report that we made substantial progress between the United States and China in these very important trade negotiations. I want to thank our Swiss host. The Swiss government has been very gracious in providing this wonderful venue, which I believe greatly contributed to productivity. We will share the details tomorrow, but I can say in advance that the discussions were productive. The Vice President, two deputy ministers, Ambassador Greer, and I were directly involved. I spoke with President Trump last night, as did Ambassador Jamieson, and he is fully aware of what is happening. There will be a full briefing tomorrow morning.
In turn, the U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, he stressed: “As the Secretary noted, it's been a very constructive two days. It's important to understand the speed with which we reached an agreement, which suggests that perhaps the differences weren't as great as previously thought. That said, there was a lot of prior work that allowed for this progress. Let's remember why we're here: The United States faces a massive $1,2 trillion trade deficit, which is why the President declared a national emergency and imposed tariffs. We're confident that the agreement reached with our Chinese partners will help us resolve that emergency.«.
China's participation and WTO support
The talks were attended by Vice Premier He Lifeng of China and other high officials such as the International Trade Representative Chenggang Li. Both delegations pledged to maintain a permanent technical dialogue channel to review the terms of the agreement and facilitate the implementation of measures to reduce the current tariff regime, which in some cases reaches up to 145% for Chinese products and 125% for U.S. goods.
From Geneva, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, celebrated the outcome of the meetings through his official account on the social network X (formerly Twitter): "GThanks to His Excellency Vice Premier He Lifeng of China for the excellent discussions following the very productive US-China meeting in Geneva. This de-escalation of tensions will, we hope, have positive effects on world trade. I also appreciate that the Vice Premier and the International Trade Representative, His Excellency Chenggang Li, have taken the time to discuss the challenges facing the WTO and what reforms we need.
Okonjo-Iweala stated that this type of bilateral rapprochement can have "positive indirect effects" on global trade, bringing predictability to the multilateral system and creating opportunities for more vulnerable economies.
Next steps
May 12th: Publication of the joint statement with details of the agreement.
Creation of a bilateral technical table to review tariff measures, non-tariff barriers and deficit reduction.
WTO support in monitoring the implementation and eventual integration into the multilateral framework.
(With official information from the White House, “US Announces China Trade Deal in Geneva”, May 11, 2025)
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