By Andrea Shalal, David Lawder and Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and chief trade negotiator Jamieson Greer will meet China’s top economic official in Switzerland on Saturday, U.S. officials said, in what could be a first step toward resolving a trade war disrupting the global economy.
News of the meeting late on Tuesday sent U.S. equity index futures sharply higher as trading resumed following a second straight day of losses on Wall Street fueled by uncertainty over U.S. President Donald Trump’s tsunami of tariffs. S&P 500 emini futures were about 1% higher.
The U.S. Trade Representative’s office and Treasury said Greer and Bessent would travel together to Geneva on Thursday and would also meet Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter to discuss negotiations over reciprocal trade.
“My sense is this will be about de-escalation,” Bessent told Fox News host Laura Ingraham during a segment of “The Ingraham Angle” following the announcement of the meeting. “We’ve got to de-escalate before we can move forward.”
The agencies did not name which officials would attend the meeting from Beijing, saying only the two would engage with China’s “lead representative on economic matters.”
China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng is widely viewed as the country’s economic czar and chief trade negotiator.
After the announcement, a Chinese commerce ministry spokesperson confirmed China had agreed to re-engage the U.S.
“On the basis of fully considering global expectations, China’s interests, and the appeals of U.S. industry and consumers, China has decided to re-engage the U.S.,” the Chinese statement said.
“There is an old Chinese saying: Listen to what is said, and watch what is done…. If (the U.S.) says one thing but then does another, or attempts to use talks as a cover to continue coercion and blackmail, China will never agree.”
Trump and his trade team have sent mixed signals over progress on talks with major trading partners rushing to cement deals to avoid the imposition of hefty import taxes on their goods.
Bessent told lawmakers earlier in the day that the Trump administration was negotiating with 17 major trading partners, but not yet China, and could announce trade agreements with some of them as early as this week.
Trump told reporters before a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney that he and top administration officials will review potential trade deals over the next two weeks to decide which ones to accept, sending stocks lower.
The agency statements did not describe the meeting with the Chinese officials as the start of negotiations. Washington and Beijing have been locked in a cat-and-mouse game over tariffs, with each side unwilling to be seen to back down in a trade war that has roiled global markets and upended supply chains.
WIDENING TRADE GAP
Trump and his top officials have engaged in a flurry of meetings with trading partners since Trump announced a 10% tariff on most countries on April 2, along with higher tariff rates for many trading partners that will kick in on July 9, barring separate trade agreements. Trump has also imposed 25% tariffs on autos, steel and aluminum, 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and 145% tariffs on China.
China responded by boosting its tariffs on U.S. goods to 125%, although it offered some exemptions. A top European Union official said on Tuesday the 27-nation bloc was readying countermeasures if no trade deal was reached with Washington, adding that it was being contacted by other countries seeking to forge closer trade ties with the EU.
“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 in a statement.
Trump’s moves on tariffs, which he says are aimed in part at reducing the U.S. trade deficit, are so far having an opposite effect. The U.S. Commerce Department reported on Tuesday the trade gap mushroomed to a record in March as businesses boosted imports of goods ahead of tariffs. The trade data highlighted a dynamic that helped drive gross domestic product into negative territory in the first quarter of 2025 for the first time in three years.
In particular, an effort by drug makers to beat tariffs that Trump has threatened to impose on the sector led to a record surge in pharmaceutical imports. Notably, though, the U.S. trade deficit with China narrowed sharply as the crushing levies Trump has imposed cut deeply into Chinese imports.
Since taking office in January, Trump has piled up new tariffs on Chinese imports totaling 145% to punish China over unfair trade practices and the U.S. fentanyl crisis. China has responded with 125% retaliatory tariffs. Bessent has called these levels unsustainable and an effective trade embargo between the world’s two largest economies.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Steve Holland and David Ljungren in Washington, David Lawder in Chicago, Jarrett Renshaw in Philadelphia, Joe Cash in Beijing, and Catarina Demony in London; Editing by Dan Burns and Howard Goller)
