US and China officials meet in Stockholm to discuss how to ease trade tensions

By JAMEY KEATEN
Associated Press

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — Top trade officials from China and the United States arrived for a new round of talks in Stockholm on Monday in a bid to ease tensions over tariffs between the world’s two biggest national economies.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng were meeting at the offices of Sweden’s prime minister for two days of talks that Bessent has said will likely to lead to an extension of current tariff levels.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson greeted He, followed by Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, as the two teams arrived in separate motorcades.

Analysts say the talks led by Bessent and He could set the stage for a possible meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this year to cement a recent thaw in trade tensions.

The talks are the third of their kind this year — nearly four months after Trump upended global trade with his sweeping tariff proposals, including an import tax that shot up to 145% on Chinese goods. China retaliated, sending global financial markets into a temporary tailspin.

The Stockholm meeting — following similar talks in Geneva and London in recent months — is set to extend a 90-day pause on those tariffs. During the pause, U.S. tariffs have been lowered to 30% on Chinese goods, and China set a 10% tariff on U.S. products.

The Trump administration, fresh off a deal on tariffs with the European Union, wants to reduce a trade deficit that came in at $904 billion overall last year — including a nearly $300 billion trade deficit with China alone.

China’s Commerce Ministry said last week that the “consultations” would raise shared concerns through the principles of “mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation.”

On Friday, Trump told reporters “we have the confines of a deal with China” — just two days after Bessent told MSNBC that a “status quo” had been reached between the two sides. Without an extension of the pause, the respective tariff levels could snap back to punishingly high rates.

While the Chinese side has offered little guidance about the specifics of its aims in Stockholm, Bessent has suggested that the situation has stabilized to the point that China and the U.S. can start looking toward longer-term balance between their two economies.

For years, since China vaulted into the global trading system about two decades ago, the United States has sought to press various leaders in Beijing to encourage more consumption in China and wrest greater market access to foreign-made — including American — goods.

Other sticking points in the relationship include overcapacity in China — by far the world’s largest manufacturer — and concerns about whether Beijing is doing enough to control chemicals used to make fentanyl, analysts say.

Sean Stein, president of the U.S.-China Business Council, said Stockholm could be the first real opportunity for the two governments to address structural reform issues, including market access in China for U.S. companies.

What businesses will be seeking coming out of Stockholm would largely be “the atmosphere” — how the two sides characterize the discussions. They will also look for clues about a possible leaders’ summit, because any real deal will hinge on the two presidents meeting each other, he said.

In Stockholm, Beijing will likely demand the removal of the 20% fentanyl-related tariff that Trump imposed earlier this year, said Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Washington-based Stimson Center.

Bessent has also said the Stockholm talks could address Chinese purchases of Russian and Iranian oil.

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Didi Tang and Josh Boak in Washington and Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed to this report.