Trump officials will meet with China, signaling an openness to trade negotiations

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will both travel to Geneva, Switzerlandare scheduled to meet later this week with Chinese representatives on trade and economic matters, their agencies announced Tuesday evening.

Two top Trump officials are scheduled to meet later this week with Chinese representatives on trade and economic matters, their agencies announced Tuesday evening, a nascent sign of a thaw in the trade war sparked by President Donald Trump’s massive tariffs. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will both travel to Geneva, Switzerland, where they will meet with President Karin Keller-Sutter and, separately, the Chinese officials, authorities announced. Bessent said Tuesday on Fox News not to expect a major trade deal out of the meetings, but he acknowledged it was an important step in negotiations. “My sense is that this will be about de-escalation, not about the big trade deal … but we’ve got to de-escalate before we can move forward,” he said. He said that Trump was using “strategic uncertainty” to “get the best trade deals possible,” and, “That’s what’s happening with the trading partners who are coming to us.” “The world has been coming to the US (for deals), and China has been the missing piece,” he said. “We don’t want to decouple; what we want is fair trade.”