Stockholm: China and the US have agreed to continue their tariff pauses on each other, China’s top trade official said Tuesday in Stockholm, following a two-day meeting with US officials.
Speaking with the press, Li Chenggang said the two sides had “constructive” and “candid” discussions and agreed to keep the tariffs at current levels — the US taxing Chinese goods at 30 per cent and
China collecting 10 per cent on US products. Li also said the two sides had “comprehensive and in-depth” discussions on microeconomic issues, agreeing to keep close contact and “communicate with each other in a timely manner on trade and economic issues.”
Chinese and US trade officials held their latest round of trade talks in the Swedish capital on Monday and Tuesday to try to break a logjam over tariffs that have skewed the pivotal commercial ties between the world’s two largest economies.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is expected to speak with reporters later on Tuesday.
On the first day, the talks lasted nearly five hours behind closed doors at the Swedish prime minister’s office Monday. Before the talks resumed Tuesday, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson met with Bessent and US trade representative Jamieson Greer over breakfast.
The United States has struck deals over tariffs with some of its key trading partners — including Britain, Japan and the European Union — since US President Donald Trump announced “Liberation Day” tariffs against dozens of countries in April. China remains perhaps the biggest unresolved case.
“The Chinese have been very pragmatic,” Greer said in comments posted on social media by his office late Monday.
“Obviously we’ve had a lot of tensions over the years. We have tensions now, but the fact that we are regularly meeting with them to address these issues gives us a good footing for these negotiations.”
“Whether there will be a deal or not, I can’t say,” Greer added in the clip posted on X from MSNBC’s
“Morning Joe”. “Whether there’s room for an extension, I can’t say at this point. But the conversations are constructive and they’re going in the right direction.”
Many analysts expect that the Stockholm talks, will result in an extension of current tariff levels that are far lower than the triple-digit percentage rates as the US-China tariff tiff crescendoed in April, sending world markets into a temporary tailspin.