Both China and the United States have said they have made progress at trade talks between the two countries in Switzerland.
The US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the discussions as “productive and constructive,” while China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng said the talks were “in-depth” and “candid”.
The White House called it a “trade deal” but gave no further details. A joint statement with full details is expected on Monday.
The pair were engaged in secretive closed-door discussions all weekend, in the first meeting since US President Donald Trump levied steep tariffs against China on its goods entering America in January.
The talks were the first face-to-face meetings between the two countries since President Trump imposed a 145% tariff on Chinese imports, with Beijing responding with a 125% levy on some US goods.
The huge tariffs caused turmoil in the financial markets and sparked fears of a global recession.
Following the conclusion of the two-day talks in Geneva, US trade representative ambassador Jamieson Greer said “the deal we struck with our Chinese partners” would help reduce the US’s $1.2tn (£901bn) trade deficit.
Bessent said the US and China had made “substantial progress” on de-escalating the trade war, while Vice Premier He said the talks were “of great significance to the two countries but also have an important impact on the stability and development of the global economy”.
Vice Premier He said the two sides had reached a series of major consensuses, and had also agreed to establish an economic and trade consultation mechanism.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, inspector general of the World Trade Organization, called the talks “a significant step forward” and urged both countries to “build on this momentum”.
Stocks in mainland China and Hong Kong rose on Monday, while US stock markets are also expected to open higher when trading starts later. The Chinese currency, the yuan, strengthened against the US dollar.
Frank Lavin, former undersecretary for international trade at the US Department of Commerce, told the BBC’s Business Today programme he expected the two countries to cut tariffs although they would remain “way above historical norms”.
Andrew Wilson, the deputy secretary general of the International Chamber of Commerce, said the current tariff levels needed to be reduced substantially.
While he said the comments from the weekend were “very positive”, if tariffs remained above 20% that would “still be severely disruptive to international trade flows”.
“I think we need to be setting 30% as a benchmark, ideally going down towards 20%.”
Deborah Elms, head of trade policy at the Hinrich Foundation, said the so-called reciprocal tariffs “could be addressed, but probably not”.
“I think mostly what I expect is an agreement to keep talking,” she said on the BBC’s Newsday programme.
On Saturday, following the first day of talks Trump had praised the “total reset” on the relationship between the two countries.
In a social media post, the US president described the talks as being “very good” and said change had been “negotiated in a friendly, but constructive, manner”.
“We want to see, for the good of both China and the U.S., an opening up of China to American business. GREAT PROGRESS MADE!!!” Trump added.
On Friday, before the talks began, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Washington would not lower tariffs unilaterally, and China would need to make its own concessions.
Both sides issued various other warnings ahead of the meeting, with Beijing saying the US must ease tariffs while Bessent stressed that the focus was on “de-escalation” and this was not a “big trade deal”.
Chinese state media reported that Beijing had decided to engage with the US after fully considering global expectations, the country’s interests and appeals from American businesses.
Last month, the BBC found that Chinese exporters were struggling with the US’s tariffs – one company, Sorbo Technology, reported that half of its products were normally sold to the US and were now sat in boxes in a warehouse in China.
Meanwhile, the US economy shrank in the first three months of the year – contracting at an annual rate of 0.3% – as firms raced to get goods into the country.
The trade war between China and the US intensified last month after President Trump announced a universal baseline tariff on all imports to the United States, on what he called “Liberation Day”.
Around 60 trading partners, which the White House described as the “worst offenders”, were subjected to higher rates than others. The list included China and the European Union.
Trump said this was payback for years worth of unfair trade policies for the US.
He also separately announced a 25% import tax on all steel and aluminium coming into the US, and a further 25% tariff on all cars and car parts.
It was announced last week that the US and UK had agreed a deal, in which the 25% tariff will be cut to 10% for a maximum of 100,000 UK cars – matching the number of cars the UK exported last year.
