Bessent eyes China tariff deadline extension in talks next week
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday that he would meet his Chinese counterparts in Stockholm next week for tariff talks, eyeing an extension to a mid-August deadline for levies to snap back to steeper levels.
Bessent told Fox Business that he will be speaking with Chinese officials on Monday and Tuesday for a third round of high-level negotiations, to work out what he said would be a likely postponement of the deadline.
Washington and Beijing slapped escalating, tit-fortat levies on each other's exports earlier this year -- reaching triple digit levels -- stalling trade between the world's two biggest economies as tensions surged.
But after top officials met in Geneva in May, both sides agreed to temporarily lower their tariff levels in a de-escalation set to expire next month. Officials from the two countries also met in London in June.'That deal expires on August 12, and I'm going to be in Stockholm on Monday and Tuesday with m y Chinese counterparts, and we'll be working out what is likely an extension then,' Bessent said in the interview.
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