The United States Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Besent, announced on Tuesday that he will hold meetings with a Chinese delegation this weekend in Switzerland, in an attempt to cool the tariff conflict that faces the two greatest economies in the world. The conversations will be held on Saturday and Sunday, although the agenda has not yet been closed.
“We have agreed to speak on Saturday and Sunday and we will decide what to talk about. I have the feeling that it will try to descale, not the great commercial agreement, but we have to descale before being able to move forward,” Besent said in an interview granted to the Fox News chain. The quote on Swiss soil is emerging as the first formal contact since the commercial war was shot, marked by a spiral of tariffs and crossed threats.
Together with Besent, the main commercial negotiator of the Donald Trump government, Jamieson Greer. Both will leave this Thursday for Geneva, where they will also meet with the Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter, to address possible bilateral agreements focused on commercial reciprocity. Washington has not detailed who will come by Beijing, although everything indicates that it will be the vice -first minister He Lifeng, considered the country’s economic tsar and the most responsible for international negotiations.
A cross -pressing game with global impact
The news of the conversations, which was known on Tuesday night, has had an immediate effect on the markets. Wall Street futures have risen with force after two days of falls caused by the uncertainty surrounding Trump’s commercial policy. The S&P 500 contracts have rebounded about 1% as soon as the operations are resumed, partially relieved the pressure suffered by investors.
The appointment in Switzerland comes in full tariff offensive of the US President. Since April 2, Trump has been chaining new rates to almost all its commercial partners, with 10% generalized and uploaded asks as of July 9. To this is added 25% on cars, steel and aluminum, and a 145% punishment to Chinese imports. It has also imposed 25% of taxes to products from Canada and Mexico.
China has responded by hardening its tariffs up to 125% for American products, although it has introduced some exemptions. Meanwhile, the European Union prepares for possible reprisals. A senior community official has confirmed on Tuesday that Brussels contemplates measures if a pact with Washington does not close. In addition, several countries have begun to move to strengthen commercial ties with the European bloc.
The US negotiates with 17 other partners
Besent has appeared on Tuesday against Congress, where he has assured that the Trump administration is negotiating with 17 great commercial partners, although it has not yet included China in that group. Some of those agreements could be announced in the next few days, according to the Treasury Secretary. For his part, Trump has assured that he will review all the proposals with his team in the next two weeks, before deciding which he accepts. The comment has generated nervousness among investors.
US agencies have avoided qualifying this weekend meeting as the official start of negotiations. The climate between Washington and Beijing is still thin, with the two parts immersed in a wear pulse where nobody wants to give the first step. The dynamic has caused an earthquake in global supply chains and has dragged other economies to a spiral of uncertainty.
Besent has taken the opportunity to launch a political message. “President Donald J. Trump leads the way inside and outside the country to a stronger and prosperous America,” he said in a statement. “I expect some productive conversations while we work to rebalance the international economic system in favor of the interests of the United States.”
The effects of this commercial war are already noticeable in macroeconomic indicators. The Commerce Department has reported Tuesday that the American commercial deficit reached a new record in March, driven by an increase in imports. Pharmaceuticals, in particular, have accelerated purchases to get ahead of tariffs announced by Trump, which has triggered medication entry figures.
The impact has been immediate on growth. The United States GDP has fallen into the first quarter of 2025, something that has not happened for three years. Besent has recognized that the current levels of tariffs between Washington and Beijing are unsustainable and equivalent, in practice, an undercover commercial embargo.
