The full details will be released on Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
U.S. officials on May 11 said they reached a deal with China to reduce its trade deficit with the United States, touting “substantial progress” after two days of trade talks with Chinese regime officials in Switzerland.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Geneva, Switzerland, over the weekend to de-escalate trade tensions after both countries imposed substantial tariffs on one another in recent months.
“I’m happy to report that we’ve made substantial progress between the United States and China in the very important trade talks,” Bessent told reporters. Bessent said he had informed President Donald Trump of the progress and there will be a complete briefing on Monday morning.
Bessent in his remarks did not reference a deal or agreement, but U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who also participated in the talks, said the negotiations were constructive and concluded with a “deal we struck with our Chinese partners” to work toward reducing the $1.2 trillion U.S. global goods trade deficit.
“It’s important to understand how quickly we were able to come to agreement, which reflects that perhaps the differences were not as large as maybe thought,” Greer said.
He added that the Chinese officials participating were “tough negotiators.”
The discussions marked the first time Bessent, Greer, and He have met in person after both nations, which have the world’s two largest economies, began imposing tariffs far surpassing 100 percent on each other’s imports.
Bessent previously said the bilateral tariffs between the two countries needed to be reduced in efforts toward de-escalation, but did not offer further information on potential reductions and did not take questions from reporters.
In a Saturday post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that “great progress” had been made in discussions between his administration and China after the first day of the trade talks. He suggested a “total reset” was possible between the two countries.
Beijing has not yet publicly commented on the negotiations.
Discussions between the United States and China could help stabilize the world markets still reeling from the tit-for-tat tariff war between the two nations, with some ships in port with goods from China still unwilling to unload until they know the final decision on import tariffs.
The negotiations have occurred behind closed doors.
By Jacob Burg
