US and Chinese officials will hold high-level talks in Switzerland this weekend, a first step towards softening trade tensions between the two world’s largest economies on prices, but experts did not expect immediate breakthroughs.
Analysts said on Wednesday that talks were a necessary step towards the defense of tensions in the middle of the current trade war, but negotiations to resolve the differences between the two countries can be extended.
US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet the Chinese Deputy Prime Minister, He Lifeng in Geneva, the first official commitment between the two countries since US President Donald Trump increased prices on imports from China to 145%.
“Disorption will not be simple. It is much easier to resume restrictions on the lifting, “said Wendy Cutler, vice-president of the Asia Society Policy Institute.
“The expectations should be modest for this meeting. This is a first step in a potentially longer process, which is complicated by a lack of confidence and diametrically opposed points of view on the way in which trade is led between the two largest economies,” Cutler on Radio Free Asia said.
The Chinese scientist Zhang Li accepted. He expects China and the United States to engage in prolonged negotiations on a range of questions, including the prices imposed by the two nations, the smuggling of the fatal synthetic opioid in the United States and other commercial imbalances.
“Such prolonged negotiations could last throughout the Trump administration, causing a continuous trade war between China and the United States, which is also a characteristic of the new Cold War between China and the United States,” Zhang told RFA.
In 2024, total production of China reached 40.5 billions of yuan (5.65 billions of US dollars). The volume of foreign trade – Exports and imports – was 43.85 Billion of Yuan (6.1 billions of US dollars), whose exports represented 25.45 billions of yuan (3.49 billions of US dollars).
In March, Chinese imports to the United States were the lowest in five years, according to data published by the US trade department. The American trade deficit has widened to a record of $ 140.5 billion in the month, with imports at least 10 countries, including Vietnam and Mexico, at record levels.
Trump – who held an oath at the Oval Office for the new American ambassador to China on Wednesday, David Lost David – said that he was not open to the reduction of 145% import duties on Chinese products.
His comments one day came after Bessent, in an interview on Fox News, said that the current prices imposed are not durable and that the two parties had a “shared interest” for talks.
“We don’t want to decouple. What we want is a fair trade,” said Bessent. He stressed that “de -escalation” will be the objective, instead of a “big trade agreement”.
On Wednesday, China said that the United States had repeatedly indicated in the recent past it wanted to negotiate and that the next meeting had been requested by the United States
“China firmly opposes the United States pricing hikes. This position remains unchanged,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Lin Jian, during a press briefing.
“Meanwhile, as we have pointed out several times before, China is open to dialogue, but any dialogue must be based on equality, respect and mutual benefits,” said Lin.
Washington and Beijing have embarked on an increase in tit-for-tat prices since Trump imposed a 10% price on China on February 4, citing his role in the fentanyl, a deadly opioid which has become a major cause of death in America.
China, in turn, retaliated with a price of 15% on American coal and liquefied natural gas, and 10% on crude oil, large cars and agricultural machines, which prompted Trump to further increase China prices by 10% to a total of 20%, followed by several additional increases until the 145% is installed.
In China, the steep prices of the United States on Chinese products have sparked a wave of factory closings in the country’s main export centers, with sources indicating that there is a sense of dominant helplessness among the general public, given little consumption activity and an increase in protests from unpaid workers.
Published by Tenzin Pema and Mat Pennington.