The United States and China closed on Tuesday in Stockholm their third Round of tariff negotiations Without an agreement but with the will to extend the current truce, which expires on August 12 and on which the US president, Donald Trump, will have the last word.
One and another considered this last exchange. According to the American commercial representative, Jamieson Greer, it was a “very productive” discussion, while the Chinese negotiator Li Chenggang described her as “deep, sincere and constructive.”
US Treasury Secretary, Scott Besent, and Greer will inform Trump on Wednesday in person The White House About what was discussed and this will be the one to pronounce on an extension of the current tariff parenthesis for another 90 days.
“We will approve it or not,” said the Republican leader On board the presidential plane Air Force One back to the United States after having visited Scotland, and where he stressed that Besent had transmitted that the meeting with the Chinese team was “very good.”
The two parts reached it with the 145 % tariff Current Hashington Truce He dropped the levies to 30 % and China to 10 %.
If an agreement is not reached before mid -August, Greer advanced, The tariffs On Chinese imports they could be around 80 or 85 %, depending on the product.
- At the negotiating table, in Besent’s words, they are “The two largest economies“
“As I have already said and we reiterate them, we do not want Strategic industries. (…) We talk about how we can work together to achieve a balance in our relationships, “said Treasury Secretary.
This meeting in the Swedish capital has followed those held in Geneva in May and London in June and the telephone conversation between Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinpingat the beginning of last month.
The June meeting in London reduced exports controls, those of chips or engines for aviation by US and those of Rare earth On the Chinese side.
The president American foresee on Tuesday a meeting in person with XI before the end of the year thanks to the development of this last round: “If I had asked me the question yesterday I did not paint very well. Maybe I would not have said anything, but I could also have said that it was not going very well,” he said in response to that eventual meeting.
The Chinese negotiator had pointed today as the two Economic teams and commercial “will continue to maintain close communication and make timely exchanges on economic and commercial issues.”
They will continue to promote “the stable and healthy development of their bilateral relationship in terms of Commerce and economy“
According to Besent, nothing will be decided until on Wednesday they have the possibility to talk to Trump and communicate the March of dialogue.
The IMF
This same Tuesday the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had urged countries to solve their differences and recover stability in their commercial policies as an “essential” step to reduce the uncertainty caused by the foreseeable impacts of the increase in tariffs on world economies. The deadline given by Trump to the rest of the partners ends this August 1.
China has made known, through related means, that it will not accept impositions and that any attempt to condition negotiations to unilateral measures – such as extraterritorial sanctions or technological restrictions – would damage The weather of understanding.
For the United States, The imposition of tariffs The Asian country is a way of correcting current imbalances.
“China is the most unbalanced economy of modern times, it represents 30 % of World manufacturing. It has a current account of 2 % of the global GDP, something we had never seen before, probably not since the 1870s with the British empire, and that is not sustainable, “Besent concluded.
