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Top U.S. and Chinese officials are meeting in Sweden this week in a high-stakes effort to secure a trade agreement before looming tariff deadlines reignite tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
The talks, which began around 9 a.m. ET, are being led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng. They mark the continuation of earlier rounds of negotiations in Geneva and London and are focused on extending the current trade truce set to expire on Aug. 12.
The Trump administration is racing to finalize trade deals ahead of an August 1 deadline to reimpose steep tariffs announced by the president back in April. In the past week, President Donald Trump has struck agreements with both the European Union and Japan — each now set to face a 15% tariff on exports to the U.S.
The talks, which began around 9 a.m. ET, are being led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng. (Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images / Getty Images)
However, China, America’s largest trading partner, remains the biggest question mark.
According to the South China Morning Post, both sides are expected to extend the Aug. 12 deadline by another 90 days to allow more time for negotiations. The Treasury Department declined to comment, but Bessent hinted last week that a renewal in “90-day increments” was under consideration.
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“Both sides have de-escalated, and I think we can get into a very good cadence of regular meetings with them,” Bessent said in an interview on Bloomberg TV.
Trump suggested on Sunday that a breakthrough may be near.
“We just struck a deal with Japan, as you know, and we’re very close to a deal with China,” he said.
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U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, China’s International Trade Representative and Vice Minister of Commerce Li Chenggang, and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, met in Geneva in May. (KEYSTONE/EDA/Martial Trezzini/Handout via REUTERS)
China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng arrives for talks with the U.S. in Sweden this week. (TT News Agency/Fredrik Sandberg via REUTERS)
The list of topics for discussion is lengthy: China’s export restrictions on critical minerals the U.S. relies on to run all sorts of technologies, stopping the flow of fentanyl that originates in China into the U.S., American concerns about China’s purchases of Russian and Iranian oil and recent exit preventing U.S. citizens from leaving China. Experts have suggested transferring ownership of TikTok to a U.S. company may also be on the table.
Despite growing tensions in the Indo-Pacific — where U.S. military officials continue to prepare for a potential conflict with China — economic ties between Washington and Beijing appear to be thawing.
Trump recently floated the idea of visiting China in the near future. In response, Beijing eased restrictions on rare-earth magnet exports, while Washington gave the green light for Chinese firms to purchase Nvidia’s H20 semiconductor chip.
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Back in April, Trump stunned markets with a sweeping 145% tariff on Chinese imports, prompting an immediate response from President Xi Jinping, who slapped a 125% tariff on U.S. goods. A temporary 90-day truce followed, bringing tariffs back down to roughly 30% for Chinese goods entering the U.S. and 10% for U.S. exports to China.
