China says it hopes to agree with U.S. on tariff reductions ‘at an early date’ — SkimNews
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- Huang Ling, a Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson, said on September 10 that negotiators are striving to implement reciprocal tariff reductions on $30 billion of goods "at an early date," without elaborating.
- Trump and Xi are expected to meet in Washington on September 24 for their third face-to-face talks in the past year, with both governments framing the summit as a way to stabilize relations between the world's two largest economies.
- The tariff cuts are a central part of negotiations on creating a U.S.-China Board of Trade and parallel Board of Investment that Trump and Xi agreed to launch at their previous meeting in Beijing in May.
- The underlying truce followed a "blistering tariff war" in which Trump hiked tariffs on Chinese imports to extremely high levels and China responded in kind; the current tariff truce expires on November 10.
- Barclays Bank said in a research note that trade will be "front and centre" at the summit but cautioned the scope for a broad deal is limited and that targeted tariff reductions on equivalent amounts of "non-sensitive" goods are more likely.
- Guo Jiakun, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said leaders' diplomacy plays "an irreplaceable strategic guiding role" in China-U.S. relations.
Why it matters: With the bilateral tariff truce expiring November 10 and Barclays flagging that only targeted reductions are realistic, the $30 billion deal is a narrow, face-saving instrument rather than a reset. If no agreement lands before the deadline, the elevated tariffs both sides imposed during the trade war snap back into force, reimposing costs on importers and exporters operating under the current truce.
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