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Negotiating teams from both the U.S. and China have ended two days of trade talks in the Swiss city of Geneva amid severe tensions between the world's two largest economies. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday evening that the two sides had made what he called, quote, "substantial progress" but that more details would be announced on Monday, as Willem Marx reports.
WILLEM MARX, BYLINE: Scott Bessent and the U.S. trade representative, Ambassador Jamieson Greer, stood outside the villa beside Lake Geneva, where they'd spent much of this weekend, and thanked their Swiss hosts before talking up developments with their Chinese counterparts.
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SCOTT BESSENT: I can tell you that the talks were productive. We had the vice premier, two vice ministers who were integrally involved, Ambassador Jamieson and myself.
MARX: A couple hours later, inside China's mission to the World Trade Organization, Beijing's vice premier for economic affairs, He Lifeng, said the atmosphere had been collegial and professional, and the meeting had been an important first step to resolving differences through dialogue. He said China did not want the trade war that President Trump created, but it was not afraid and would fight to the end, a stance that Beijing's repeated several times in recent weeks. The next concrete steps will include the creation of a new consultation mechanism that will involve senior officials from both countries with a joint statement to be issued tomorrow. Ambassador Greer said the two sides had been closer than many had anticipated.
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JAMIESON GREER: 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.
MARX: After weeks of frazzled financial markets, investors are likely to react positively to this development in a sign that the significant disruption to trade between the two countries could soon resume with improved economic consequences. Businesses worldwide will want much more detail before making any decisions, though. And after just two days of talks, this is far from a done deal, according to Dmitry Grozoubinski, a former Australian trade negotiator based in Geneva.
DMITRY GROZOUBINSKI: It's probably more likely that they agreed on what their conversation should cover - on what are the kind of things they are both prepared to discuss and made some positive noises about their likelihood to enter into conversations about them.
MARX: And while China's representatives said differences and frictions remain, the talks do at least seem to have achieved some form of consensus. For NPR News, I'm Willem Marx in Geneva. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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