Scott Bessent to meet Chinese officials over tariffs

The US Treasury Secretary and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet Beijing officials later this week in Switzerland, jump-starting trade talks between the two nations.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will meet Chinese officials in Switzerland. Picture: Getty Images

US and Chinese officials are meeting next week for trade talks amid a tariff standoff between Washington and Beijing, with Donald Trump saying he hoped to shortly cut deals allowing other nations to “shop” in the United States - likening the country to a “super luxury store.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will travel on Thursday (local time) to Switzerland to attend the discussions, while China is sending Vice Premier He Lifeng to lead the talks for Beijing on economic and trade affairs.

Mr Bessent, who is scheduled to meet with Mr He, informed the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services on Tuesday that Washington was not yet in negotiations with Beijing on a trade deal.

He said America had 18 very important trading partners and that Washington was “currently negotiating with 17 of those trading partners.”

“China we have not engaged in negotiations with as of yet.”

However, Mr Bessent said he soon expected to see a substantial reduction in the tariffs being charged on American goods, as well as a reduction in the use of non-tariff barriers.

“Many of our trading partners have approached us with very good offers,” he said. “I would be surprised if we don’t have 80 to 90 per cent of those wrapped up by the end of the year.”

“It may be much sooner.”

“I would think that perhaps as early as this week, we will be announcing trade deals with some of our largest trading partners,” he said.

In his first meeting with newly elected Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, Mr Trump said that America didn’t need to sign deals with other nations.

“We don’t have to sign deals,” he said. “They have to sign deals with us. They want a piece of our market. We don’t want a piece of their market. We don’t care about their market.”

Mr Trump said it was “very, very simple.”

“I think my people haven’t made it clear. We will sign some deals. But much bigger than that is: we’re going to put down the price that people are going to have to pay to shop in the United States.”

“Think of us as a super luxury store. A store that has the goods.”

Trump made the comments shortly after new figures revealed that America’s trade deficit in goods and services had reached a new record high of $140.5bn in March 2025, with importers rushing to stock-up on foreign goods to avoid Mr Trump’s sweeping new tariffs.

US imports rose by 4.4 per cent in March to $419bn – a $17.8bn increase on February imports – while exports rose only marginally by 0.2 per cent to $278.5bn over the same period.

This delivered a total trade deficit of $140.5bn, confirmed by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis as “the highest on record.” It represented a 14 per cent blowout on the February deficit of $123.2bn.

The result was driven by a $16.5bn increase in the goods deficit, which rose to $163.5bn in March – also a record high. Imports of goods increased $17.8bn to $346.8bn.

The planned talks between Mr Bessent and Mr He in Switzerland come as both Washington and Beijing look for an off-ramp from hostilities to start trade negotiations.

The planned talks could buoy investors eager to see a reduction in tariffs that risk crippling trade between the world’s two largest economies. Mr Trump placed duties as high as 145 per cent on many Chinese imports, and Beijing retaliated with import taxes of 125 per cent on American goods.

The moves rattled markets and threaten to drive up prices for manufacturing equipment as well as affordable goods that many Americans rely on, including clothing and toys.

Mr Trump said in recent days that he was willing to lower tariffs on China at some point, but also said this week that the US was “losing nothing” by not trading with Beijing.

The president has said that American consumers would be willing to accept higher prices and less selection in order to rebalance the trade relationship with China.

He told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that young girls did not need “to have 30 dolls.”

“I think they can have three dolls or four dolls, because what we were doing with China was just unbelievable,” he said.

Billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones predicted on Tuesday that Mr Trump could slash tariffs on China in half — but warned that may not be enough to prevent markets from falling.

With Dow Jones and Bloomberg