White House announces agreement with China
May 12, 2025
Washington [US], May 12: "I am pleased to report that we have made substantial progress between the United States and China in our very important trade dialogue ," US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on May 11 after concluding two days of weekend negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland.
Mr. Bessent said the talks were productive and details would be announced on the morning of May 12.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who attended the talks and spoke alongside Mr Bessent, offered a more confident statement that a deal had been reached.
"It's important to understand the speed with which we were able to come to an agreement, which suggests that perhaps the differences were not as big as people thought," Mr Greer said.
"Just remember why we're here in the first place. The United States is facing a massive $1.2 trillion trade deficit, so the president declared a national emergency and imposed tariffs, and we believe that the agreement we reached with our Chinese partners will help us address that emergency," Greer added.The two statements were published in an article on the White House
Meanwhile, the Chinese representative, Deputy Prime Minister He Lifeng, said that the two sides had in-depth, frank and constructive dialogue on implementing the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries on January 17, and had "reached a series of major consensuses."
Mr. Ha said China and the United States have common interests and broad space for cooperation, and bilateral economic and trade relations are mutually beneficial in nature, according to Xinhua.
The official reiterated that there are no winners in a trade war, stressing that China does not want a trade war but is not afraid of it either. "If the US side insists on infringing on China's rights and interests, China will resolutely respond and fight to the end," Deputy Prime Minister Ha declared.
He called on both sides to explore more cooperation potential, expand the cooperation list, make the cooperation pie bigger, promote the development of China-US economic and trade relations, and bring more stability and certainty to the development of the world economy.
Mr. Ha added that the two sides agreed to establish an economic and trade consultation mechanism to maintain communication on concerns in these areas.
According to CNN, the Chinese delegation announced that the two countries will finalize relevant details as soon as possible and will issue a joint statement reached at the dialogue on May 12.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
