The first round of talks went on for more than ten hours.
Negotiators from the United States and China have finished their first round of trade talks in Switzerland and scheduled a second for May 11.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer began meetings in Geneva with a Chinese delegation of high-ranking officials led by Vice Premier He Lifeng.
The two sides convened in an effort to negotiate a way out of their trade war, which has seen tariffs on goods from either nation reach more than 100 percent.
The first round of talks went on for more than ten hours and included a lunch break.
Trade between the two nations, which are also the world’s largest economies, topped more than $660 billion last year, and President Donald Trump suggested he was considering lowering U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports to 80 percent in the coming days.
Hopes for a significant breakthrough appear dim as both sides have struggled to acknowledge who called for the talks to take place, with both publicly saying that the meeting was being held at the request of the other.
Complicating the issue further are geopolitical considerations, such as communist China’s continued efforts to undermine U.S. interests abroad by providing diplomatic, economic, and military assistance to authoritarian powers like Iran, North Korea, and Russia.
To that end, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping was visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow over the weekend, casting a shadow over hopes that economic talks could lead to a general thaw in relations between Washington and Beijing.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said the issue of U.S. trade with China is a key national security issue, and said it should be treated with the corollary seriousness.
“Economic security is national security, and President Donald Trump is leading the way both at home and abroad for a stronger, more prosperous America,” Bessent said in a statement released ahead of the talks.
“I look forward to productive talks as we work towards rebalancing the international economic system towards better serving the interests of the United States.”
