The White House announced the “China Trade Agreement” in a statement Sunday, but did not give details.
Trump has proposed lowering China’s tariffs to 80% ahead of trade talks
In a social media post, President Donald Trump proposed lowering China’s tariffs from 145% to 80% ahead of trade negotiations.
WASHINGTON – The Trump administration’s top administration has reached a trade deal with China after two days of negotiations in Geneva, claiming it has achieved a potentially big victory for President Donald Trump amid a trade war with Beijing.
The White House announced the “China Trade Agreement” in a statement on May 11, but did not provide details. The obvious agreement merged faster than expected after Trump’s 145% tariff on Chinese imports effectively halted $600 billion in annual trade between the two largest economies in the world.
“It’s important to understand how quickly we were able to reach an agreement, which probably reflects that the differences weren’t as big as they were thought to,” US trade representative Jamieson Greer said in a brief remarks from Geneva to reporters. “That being said, there were a lot of the foundations that we reached over the last two days.”
The two-day meeting in Switzerland was the first meeting between the top US and China leaders, with Trump imposing drastic tariffs on China and responding with a 125% retaliation tariff on US exports.
Heading towards weekend trade negotiations, Trump expressed his willingness to lower China’s tariffs to an 80% rate, but it was not immediately clear whether either side agreed to lower the other’s tariffs.
“We are pleased to report that great progress has been made between the US and China in a very important trade consultation,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent, who led the consultations in Geneva, said in a statement. “I’ll be going to explain the details tomorrow, but I can tell you that the lecture was productive.”
Bescent said the White House will hold a “full briefing” on the morning of May 12th to discuss details of the contract.
“It was done in a spirit of cooperation, shared interests and mutual respect. I look forward to sharing the details with you tomorrow morning,” Bescent said.
The Chinese government did not immediately issue a statement on negotiations or confirm whether the deal was attacked.
Trump, who was in Washington during trade negotiations, has not commented on the deal, but in a true social post the day before, he touted “great progress” from a lecture he described as “Total Reset.”
Trump has picked out China. This is because the top criminals in the US trade deficit, with $1.2 trillion, exported goods to the US nearly $300 billion more than imported, claiming they destroyed US manufacturing. Trump defends his tariffs as the key to reviving the manufacturing sector.
“We believe that dealing with our Chinese partners will help us to resolve this.
After Trump announced a US-UK trade deal on May 8, the deal with China continued its White House momentum, marking the first deal his administration reached when his administration negotiated with more than 170 countries on trade and tariff policy.
With a contract with the UK, the largest US trading partner in the United States, Trump maintained a baseline tariff of 10% on British imports, but reduced UK automobile taxes from 25% to 10%. The UK has agreed to reduce or eliminate some “non-tariff” trade barriers that hindered trade with the UK.
Reach Joey Garrison with X @joeygarrison.
