Trump Hails ‘Total Reset’ in US-China Trade Relations as Talks Continue
AFP/APP
Geneva: US President Donald Trump has praised what he described as a “total reset” in trade relations between the United States and China, as high-level negotiations continue into a second day in Geneva aimed at de-escalating tensions sparked by a recent wave of tariffs.
In a Truth Social post early Sunday, Trump called the ongoing discussions “very good” and said they marked “a total reset negotiated in a friendly, but constructive, manner.”
Closed-door meetings between US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng are scheduled to resume Sunday morning, according to a source familiar with the talks who was not authorized to speak publicly.
“These talks reflect that the current state of trade relations — with extremely high tariffs — is ultimately in the interests of neither the United States nor China,” said Citigroup global chief economist Nathan Sheets in an interview with AFP, calling the current tariff regime a “lose-lose proposition.”
This weekend’s discussions mark the first face-to-face engagement between senior officials from the world’s two largest economies since Trump imposed steep new tariffs on Chinese imports last month, prompting swift and robust retaliatory measures from Beijing.
As of now, the levies imposed by the United States on certain Chinese goods have reached a cumulative rate of up to 245 percent, with average tariffs sitting at 145 percent.
In response, China has implemented its own retaliatory tariffs, reaching up to 125 percent on US products, pushing the bilateral trade relationship to the brink of a near embargo.
Ahead of the Geneva talks, Trump suggested in a social media post that an “80 percent Tariff on China seems right,” hinting at a possible recalibration.
However, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later clarified that the United States would not lower tariffs unilaterally and emphasized that any tariff reduction would require reciprocal concessions from China.
