The Trump administration has announced that the US and China will both be rolling back tariffs on each other's goods after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with Chinese officials in Geneva, Switzerland, over the weekend. Each country will be lowering their tariffs by 115 percent.
In a joint statement released by the White House, the Trump administration said that the US and China, "recognizing the importance of a sustainable, long-term, and mutually beneficial economic and trade relationship" as well as "reflecting on their recent discussions and believing that continued discussions have the potential to address the concerns of each side in their economic and trade relationship," decided to roll back their trade barriers for an initial 90-day period.
The tariff on Chinese goods going into the United States will be lowered from a total of 145 percent to around 30 percent, and the 125 percent tariffs on American imports to China will be lowered to 10 percent. The two countries also announced that further negotiations will be taking place: "After taking the aforementioned actions, the Parties will establish a mechanism to continue discussions about economic and trade relations," the joint statement announced.
Bessent, as well as China's Vice Premier of the State Council, He Lifeng, will be the representatives to head the discussions as more negotiations take place.
As initial negotiations took place over the weekend, there was an uptick in Dow futures as well as the S&P 500, signaling more confidence from investors as the two countries work out a deal, CNN reported. The lowering of the tariffs will be set in motion on May 14.
After Trump implemented a number of tariffs earlier in April, China responded by retaliating with their own tariffs on US goods, leading to an escalation in the trade war between the two countries. Aside from China, the US dropped most of its tariffs in April just days after they were implemented for a 90-day pause to work out better trade deals with countries across the globe. Tariffs on goods imported to the US from China, however, still had a tariff of 145 percent until the recent de-escalation was worked out over the weekend.
