BEIJING: China vowed Wednesday to defend “justice” in upcoming trade talks with the United States — their first since Donald Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs that shook global markets.
Since the US president returned to the White House in January, his administration has imposed tariffs totalling 145 percent on goods from China, with some sector-specific measures stacked on top.
Beijing has retaliated with 125 percent levies on imports from the United States, along with more targeted measures.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer will attend the talks in Switzerland on behalf of the United States, their offices said.
Bessent told Fox News that the sides would hold meetings on Saturday and Sunday intended to lay the groundwork for future negotiations.
“We will agree what we’re going to talk about. My sense is that this will be about de-escalation, not about the big trade deal,“ Bessent told “The Ingraham Angle” show.
“We’ve got to de-escalate before we can move forward,“ he added.
The talks will take place in Geneva, a spokesperson for the Swiss foreign ministry confirmed to AFP.
Bern “welcomes the trust placed in Switzerland”, they added.
Vice Premier He Lifeng will attend on Beijing’s behalf, China’s foreign ministry announced.
The commerce ministry in Beijing vowed the country would “defend justice” and stand by its principles during the talks.
“If the US wants to resolve the issue through negotiations, it must face up to the serious negative impact of unilateral tariff measures on itself and the world,“ a spokesperson said.
“If the US talks in one way and acts in another, or even attempts to continue to coerce and blackmail China under the guise of talks, China will never agree.”
Beijing, the spokesperson vowed, would not “sacrifice its principled position and international fairness and justice to seek any agreement”.
China’s foreign ministry also said the talks were taking place at the “request of the United States” and that its position that Washington must lift tariffs was “unchanged”.
“But any dialogue must be based on equality, respect and mutual benefit. No form of pressure or coercion will not work on China,“ spokesman Lin Jian told a regular briefing.
The USTR announced that Greer would also meet “his counterpart from the People’s Republic of China to discuss trade matters”, without naming He.
The tit-for-tat tariffs have left the two nations with cripplingly high levies that have shocked financial markets and reportedly caused a sharp slowdown in bilateral trade.
“This isn’t sustainable, as I have said before, especially on the Chinese side, 145 percent, 125 percent is the equivalent of an embargo. We don’t want to decouple. What we want is fair trade,“ Bessent said.
