Trump officials to meet with Chinese counterparts on trade

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer will meet with their Chinese counterparts in Switzerland this weekend to discuss economic and trade matters, their offices announced Tuesday.

“We have shared interests,” Bessent said later on Fox News’ “Ingraham Angle.” The current tariff war “isn’t sustainable,” said Bessent, “especially on the Chinese side. And, you know, 145 percent [tariffs], 125 percent, is the equivalent of an embargo. We don’t want to decouple, what we want is fair trade.”

Bessent and Greer will meet with their Chinese counterparts on both Saturday and Sunday, the Treasury secretary said.

The meetings appear to be a major step toward Washington and Beijing beginning negotiations to potentially resolve the ongoing trade war ignited by President Donald Trump.

“My sense is that this will be about de-escalation, not about the big trade deal,” Bessent told host Laura Ingraham. “But we’ve got to de-escalate, before we can move forward.”

Trump ratcheted up tariffs last month on Chinese imports to 145% even as he scaled back so-called reciprocal tariffs on almost all other U.S. trading partners. China, which is one of America’s largest trading partners, retaliated with steep tariffs on U.S. goods.

Stock futures, which opened in the red Tuesday evening, turned sharply higher immediately following news of the meetings.

Both Bessent and Greer plan to meet with Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter during their visit, their offices said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that Vice Premier He Lifeng, Beijing’s top official for China-U.S. economic and trade matters, will meet with Bessent in Switzerland, NBC News reported.

“Economic security is national security, and President Donald J. Trump is leading the way both at home and abroad for a stronger, more prosperous America,” Bessent said in a statement announcing the meetings.

“I look forward to productive talks as we work towards rebalancing the international economic system towards better serving the interests of the United States,” Bessent said.

Greer’s office said he “will also meet with his counterpart from the People’s Republic of China to discuss trade matters” while in Geneva, his office said.

“At President Trump’s direction, I am negotiating with countries to rebalance our trade relations to achieve reciprocity, open new markets, and protect America’s economic and national security,” Greer said.

“I look forward to having productive meetings with some of my counterparts as well as visiting with my team in Geneva who all work diligently to advance U.S. interests on a range of multilateral issues,” Greer said.

Trump earlier Tuesday said that China wants to meet, and the U.S. will do so “at the right time.”

“They want to negotiate and they want to have a meeting and we’ll be meeting with them at the right time,” Trump said at the White House during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Trump also expressed frustration at people “asking how many deals are you signing this week?” despite the fact that his administration had said other countries were asking for bilateral trade talks with the United States.

“Everyone says, ‘When, when, when are you going to sign deals?'” Trump griped at the White House.

“We don’t have to sign deals, they have to sign deals with us. They want a piece of our market. We don’t want a piece of their market,” Trump said.

Bessent also said earlier on Tuesday that the U.S. was negotiating with 17 trading partners, and China was not one of them.

“China, we have not engaged in negotiations with as of yet,” Bessent said before a House appropriations subcommittee. 

— CNBC’s Erin Doherty contributed to this report.