WASHINGTON (AP) — Top U.S. officials are set to meet with a high-level Chinese delegation this weekend in Switzerland in the first major talks between the two nations since President Donald Trump sparked a trade war with stiff tariffs on imports.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet with their counterparts in Geneva in the most-senior known conversations between the two countries in months, the Trump administration announced Tuesday. It comes amid growing U.S. market worry over the impact of the tariffs on the prices and supply of consumer goods.
No country has been hit harder by Trump’s trade war than China, the world’s biggest exporter and second largest economy. When Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on April 2, China retaliated with tariffs of its own, a move that Trump viewed as demonstrating a lack of respect. The tariffs on each other’s goods have been mounting since then, with the U.S. tariffs against China now at 145% and China tariffs on the U.S. at 125%.
American firms have already begun canceling orders from China, postponing expansion plans and hunkering down as a result of the tariff war.
After plans for the talks had been announced, Bessent said on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” that as the U.S. has engaged in negotiations with various trading partners, “China has been the missing piece.”