The 90-day relief in reciprocal tariffs with the US is in the interests of both countries and the world, China said on Monday.
It “is in line with the expectations of producers and consumers in both countries,” said a statement by China’s Commerce Ministry, moments after the two sides announced the agreement reached during weekend talks held in the Swiss city of Geneva.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer held wide-ranging talks with the Chinese side led by top trade negotiator Vice Premier He Lifeng.
The two sides agreed to a sweeping rollback of punitive tariffs for an initial 90-day period, signaling a rare moment of relief in their protracted trade conflict and raising hopes for longer-term economic stability, according to a joint statement released from Washington and Beijing on Monday.
“We hope that the US will continue to work with China to meet each other halfway based on this meeting, thoroughly correct the wrong practice of unilateral tariff increases, continuously strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation, maintain the healthy, stable and sustainable development of China-US economic and trade relations, and jointly inject more certainty and stability into the world economy,” the Chinese Commerce Ministry said.
The Geneva deal will see the world’s top two economies significantly reduce duties on each other’s goods, with the US lowering its tariffs on Chinese products from 145% to 30% and China decreasing its own from 125% to 10% by May 14.
They also agreed to launch a new dialogue mechanism to maintain momentum, led by He, Bessent, and Greer.