Three top Trump administration economic officials will face off against Chinese negotiators in a renewed effort to seal a long-standing trade agreement.
US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer will be meeting China’s delegation in London today, June 9.
Trump disclosed the planned trade discussions following an extensive telephone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday.
“The meeting should go very well,” president Donald Trump wrote in a social media post announcing the talks on Friday.
This coming meeting will be the first official talk between the two countries since they mutually lowered tariffs in a temporary truce in May, after talks in Geneva.
After multiple rounds of tit-for-tat tariffs, the United States and China agreed to drastically roll back tariffs on each other’s goods for an initial 90-day period, in a major step toward easing a trade war between the two powers that has rattled the global economy.
The announcement comes after Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping spoke for 90 minutes on Thursday.
After the phone call, the US president said the call lasted approximately one and a half hours and resulted in a very positive conclusion for both countries. “I just concluded a very good phone call with President Xi, of China, discussing some of the intricacies of our recently made, and agreed to, trade deal.”
The Chinese foreign ministry has said the White House initiated the call.
Following Thursday’s conversation with Xi, Trump stated, “There should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of Rare Earth products. The conversation was focused almost entirely on trade.” No further clarification was provided.
Chinese president Xi Jinping said after the call with Donald J. Trump that the two sides need to make good use of the economic and trade consultation mechanism already in place and seek “win-win results” in the spirit of equality and respect for each other’s concerns.
The Chinese ministry of foreign affairs reportedly assured Trump that China “always honor and deliver what has been promised,” emphasizing that both sides should uphold the consensus reached in Geneva.
The ministry said Xi asked Mr Trump to “remove the negative measures” that the US has taken against China. It also said that the two sides should enhance communication in such fields as foreign affairs, economy and trade, military, and law enforcement to build consensus, clear up misunderstandings, and strengthen cooperation.
“The meeting in Geneva was very successful and produced a good deal. The U.S. will work with China to execute the deal,” it added.
The two presidents agreed that their teams should continue implementing the Geneva agreement and hold another round of meeting as soon as possible.
Trump also mentioned a mutual exchange of invitations: President Xi invited him and the First Lady to visit China, and Trump extended a similar gesture for Xi to visit the United States. “As Presidents of two Great Nations, this is something that we both look forward to doing,” he said.
