US and China reach trade agreement following tariff period
It comes just weeks after Trump imposed worldwide tariffs that sent global markets into a tailspin. This included placing a whopping 145 percent tariff on most Chinese goods – the highest tax by far of any country – making it nearly impossible for Beijing to trade with Washington.
'I'm happy to report that we made substantial progress between the United States and China in the very important trade talks,' Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (pictured left) said in a statement on the agreement. Switzerland hosted the trade agreement talks between the U.S. and China.
They announced a deescalation of trade tensions at the conclusions of talks in Geneva, Switzerland on Sunday. 'This was, as the Secretary pointed out, a very constructive two days,' Greer said. 'It's important to understand how quickly we were able to come to agreement, which reflects that perhaps the differences were not so large as maybe thought. That being said, there was a lot of groundwork that went into these two days,' he added.
He claimed that conditions currently in place were disadvantageous to the U.S. and that he was tired of Americans getting the short end of the stick. 'Just remember why we're here in the first place,' Ambassador Greer said on Sunday, 'the United States has a massive $1.2 trillion trade deficit, so the President declared a national emergency and imposed tariffs. We're confident that the deal we struck with our Chinese partners will help us to work toward resolving that national emergency,' he added.
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