The first round of the lecture lasted over 10 hours.
US-China negotiators have concluded their first trade talks in Switzerland, with a second scheduled for May 11th.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer launched a meeting in Geneva and a meeting with a senior Chinese delegation led by his deputy prime minister, his Lifeng.
Both sides have convened to negotiate ways to escape the trade war, where tariffs on goods from either country have been seen reaching more than 100%.
The first round of the lecture lasted over 10 hours and included lunch breaks.
Trade between the two countries, which are also the world’s largest economy, exceeded more than $660 billion last year. President Donald Trump has proposed that he is considering reducing US tariffs on Chinese imports to 80% in the future.
Hope for an important breakthrough appears dim as both sides struggle to acknowledge who requested the meeting to be held.
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What further complicates the issue are geopolitical considerations, such as the continued efforts of communist China to undermine the interests of the US overseas by providing diplomatic, economic and military support to authoritarian powers such as Iran, North Korea, and Russia.
Therefore, Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CCP) Secretary Xi Jinping will visit Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow over the weekend, hoping that economic talks will lead to a general meltdown of Washington-Beijing relations.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the issue of trade with the US is a key national security issue, and that it should be addressed in terms of the seriousness of the consequences.
“I look forward to productive consultations as we work to recalibrate the international economic system to better serve the interests of the United States.”
The exact scope of the speech in Geneva is shrouded in secret, with neither side talking to the press either inside or outside the negotiations.
However, several important issues may be touched upon, such as the trade deficit, the flow of synthetic opioid precursors from China, forced technology transfer and corporate espionage.
Negotiators will also be keen to discuss many other issues, such as non-tariff trade barriers, anti-dumping practices, intellectual property rights, labor and environmental standards, and rules for dispute resolution.
Today, many Chinese products face a 145% tariff rate when exported to the US, including a punitive 20% for China’s role in fentanyl trade and another 125% intended to address the trade deficit with China, which the Trump administration reached $263 billion last year.
Meanwhile, China collects 125% tariffs on US imports.
The US administration has said tariffs on Chinese goods are a way to recover lost money through unfair trade practices, but taxes are paid by American companies importing products from China. Therefore, tariffs of this magnitude correspond to a national boycott of many Chinese products. This is because American companies are considering other territory to import products to reduce costs.
US container imports from China spiked in April as businesses competed to avoid paying tariffs. Unless tariffs fall, that trend is expected to reverse. Some port authorities believe that cargo arrivals from China could fall by as much as 20% in May.
