Trump promotes

Geneva (AP)-President Donald Trump said that “great progress” was being made in the ongoing conversations of the United States-China about tariffs that threaten the global economy, and even suggested that a “total restart” was on the table as the fees negotiations will continue on Sunday in Switzerland.

There was no great advance in the discussions that lasted more than 10 hours among US officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Besent, US trade representative Jamieson Greer and a delegation led by Chinese vice president He Lifeng. Even so, Trump gave an optimistic tone.

“A very good meeting today with China, in Switzerland. Many things discussed, very agreed. A total restart negotiated in a friendly but constructive way,” the president wrote on his real social platform. “We want to see, for the good of China and the United States, an opening of China to US businesses. Great progress made!”

He did not give more details, and the White House officials also offered little information during and after the day of opening the discussions.

Fabrice Coffrini through Getty Images

Trump’s publication followed an official who told News that conversations would continue on Sunday. The official requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of discussions, which could help stabilize world markets in search of the confrontation between the United States and China. They have been wrapped in secret, and none of the parties made comments to journalists when they left.

In an editorial on Saturday night, the official Xinhua news agency in China said that the conversations had occurred “at the request of the United States,” pointing out a previous containment point, and said that China agreed “after taking into account the global expectations, national interests and appeals of the United States companies and consumers.”

“If the way ahead implies negotiation or confrontation, one thing is clear: China’s determination to safeguard their development interests is unwavering, and its position to maintain the world’s economic and commercial order remains unwavering,” said Xinhua.

“Conversations should never be a pretext for continuous coercion or extortion, and China will firmly reject any proposal that compromises the central principles or undermines the broader cause of global equity,” he added.

Several convoys of black vehicles left the residence of the Swiss ambassador to the UN in Geneva, which organized the conversations aimed at discouraging commercial tensions between the two largest economies in the world. The diplomats on both sides also confirmed that the conversations took place.

The opening day of the negotiations was held in the sumptuous “Villa Saladin” of the eighteenth century overlooking Lake Geneva. The old farm was bequeathed to the Swiss State in 1973, according to the Geneva government.

Leaving Trump’s evaluation aside, the prospects for a great advance seemed faint when the conversations opened. Even so, there is hope that the two countries will reduce mass taxes, tariffs, have slapped in the assets of others, a movement that would relieve world financial markets and companies on both sides of the Pacific Ocean that depend on the US-China trade.

Last month, Trump raised US tariffs over China to 145% combined, and China retaliates when reaching US imports with a 125% tax. The tariffs that take into account essentially equivalent to the products of the countries that are brought together, which interrupted the trade that exceeded $ 660 billion last year.

And even before the conversations were launched, Trump suggested on Friday that the United States could reduce its tariffs on China, saying in a social publication of the truth that “80% of the rate seems correct! A Scott.”

Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, said it will be the first time he and Besent talk. Doubt that the Geneva meeting produces substantive results.

“The best scenario is that the two parties agree to decline in the … rates at the same time,” he said, adding that even a small reduction would send a positive signal. “It can’t be just words.”

But the fight with China has been the most intense. Its tariffs on China include a 20% load aimed at pressing Beijing to make more to stop the flow of synthetic opioid fentanyl to the United States.

The remaining 125% implies a dispute that dates back to Trump’s first mandate and reaches the tariffs that he raised in China at that time, which means that total tariffs of some Chinese products can exceed 145%.

During Trump’s first mandate, the United States claimed that China uses unfair tactics to give an advantage in advanced technologies, such as quantum computing and driverless cars. These include forcing us and other foreign companies to deliver commercial secrets in exchange for access to the Chinese market; Use government money to subsidize national technology companies; and direct theft of sensitive technologies.

Those problems were never completely solved. After almost two years of negotiation, the United States and China reached a so -called phase agreement one in January 2020. The United States agreed that not to continue with even higher tariffs in China, and Beijing agreed to buy more American products. Difficult problems, such as China’s subsidies, were left for future negotiations.

But China did not arrive with the promised purchases, partly because Covid-19 interrupted the global trade just after the truce of phase one was announced.

The struggle for China’s technological policy now resumes.

Trump is also agitated by the mass commercial deficit of the United States with China, which reached $ 263 billion last year.

Trump slapped tariffs in Switzerland

In Switzerland on Friday, Besent and Greer also met with Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter.

Last month, Trump suspended the plans to slapped the strong tariffs of 31% in the Swiss goods, more than 20% of the taxes that were entered in the exports of the European Union. For now, it has reduced those 10%taxes, but could raise them again.

The government in Bern is adopting a cautious approach. But he has warned about the impact on crucial Swiss industries such as watches, coffee, cheese and chocolate capsules.

“An increase in commercial tensions is not in the interests of Switzerland. The countermeasures against the increases in the United States rate would entail costs for the Swiss economy, particularly by making imports from the United States more expensive,” the government said last week, and added that the executive branch “does not plan to impose counted currently.”

The government said Swiss exports to the United States on Saturday were subject to an additional 10% rate, and another 21% as of Wednesday.

The United States is the second largest commercial partner of Switzerland after the EU, the block of 27 members of the country that almost surrounds the rich alpine country of more than 9 million. The US trade and services. UU. It has quadrupled in the last two decades, said the government.

The Swiss government said Switzerland abolished all industrial tariffs on January 1 of last year, which means that 99% of all assets in the United States can be imported to Switzerland’s tax.

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Wiseman and Tang reported from Washington. News Will Weissert writer in Washington contributed to this report.