US and China set for talks in bid to ‘de-escalate’ trade war –

Senior US and Chinese officials will meet in Geneva on Saturday (May 10), seeking to de-escalate a trade war sparked by President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff rollout and fuelled by Beijing’s strong retaliatory measures.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer are set to confer with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in the Swiss city in the first such talks between the world’s two largest economies since Trump slapped steep new levies on China last month.

The exact venue for the weekend-long talks remained shrouded in secrecy.

Tariffs imposed on the Asian manufacturing giant since the start of the year currently total 145 per cent, with cumulative duties on some goods reaching a staggering 245 per cent.

In retaliation, China slapped 125 per cent levies on US goods, cementing what is effectively a trade embargo between the world’s two largest economies.

Trump signalled on Friday that he could lower the sky-high tariffs on Chinese imports, taking to social media to suggest that an “80% Tariff on China seems right!”

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