The current China-State talks are « an important step » for « de-escalation »-Liberation
China judged that the first trade discussions with the United States since the start of the trade war by Donald Trump, started this Saturday, May 10 in Switzerland, were « An important step ».
A sign of the importance of the issues, the two capitals sent high-ranking representatives to Geneva this weekend for these negotiations: the American secretary to the treasury, Scott Bessentthe commercial representative, Jamieson Greer, and the Chinese Deputy Prime Minister, He Lifeng. « The contact established in Switzerland is an important step in promoting litigation resolution », According to a commentary published by the official Chinese Chinese news agency Xinhua, without providing more details on the progress of negotiations.
Arrested this Saturday when he left for the meeting, Scott Bessent made no comments. The American delegation was not expressed either. The discussions have been held since the middle of Saturday morning in the opulent villa of the permanent representative of Switzerland with the United Nations in Geneva and seemed to continue around 5 p.m. French time. They are expected to continue on Sunday.
The day before the meeting, Donald Trump made a gesture by suggesting lowering punitive customs duties to 80 % that he himself imposed on Chinese products. “The president would like to solve the problem with China. As he said, he would like to appease the situation ”, On Friday evening the US Secretary of Commerce on Friday evening Howard Lutnick, on Fox News. The gesture remains symbolic because at this level customs duties would still not be bearable for most Chinese exports to the United States.
Since his return to the White House in January, Donald Trump made customs duties a political weapon. He imposed a surcharge of 145 % on goods from China, in addition to pre -existing customs duties. Beijing, who promised to fight « Until the end » Donald Trump’s surchastens retaliated with 125 % customs duties on American products. Result: bilateral exchanges are practically stopped and The markets have experienced violent upheavals.
Discussions organized in Geneva are therefore « A positive and constructive step towards de -escalation », estimated The Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealaon the eve of the talks.
Mid-April, she had shown herself « Very concerned ». She had estimated that even if the China-Stats United States exchanges « Only represented about 3 % of the global trade in goods, a decoupling ” of these two major economies could « Have considerable consequences ». For her, it could « Contribute to a broader fragmentation of the global economy » which would then be organized « According to geopolitical lines in two isolated blocks ».
The Chinese Deputy Prime Minister seems to arrive at the discussion table with an asset. Beijing announced on Friday a leap of 8.1 % of its exports in April, a figure four times higher than the forecasts of analysts, but exports to the United States fell by almost 18 %.
Donald Trump “Will not unilaterally lower customs duties on China. We must also see concessions from them ”, nevertheless warned His spokesperson Karoline Leavitt.
The president of the host country, Karin Keller-Sutter, called for supernatural forces. THURSDAY, « The Holy Spirit was in Rome », She said in reference to the election of Pope Leo XIV, before adding: « You have to hope that he is now going down to Geneva for the weekend. »
