The vice president of China, He Lipeng, held conversations with the United States Treasury Secretary, Scott Besent, on early Saturday in Geneva in a tentative first step to deactivate a commercial war that is interrupting the global economy, according to the Chinese state news agency and two people close to the conversations.
Besent and the United States commercial representative Jamieson Greer had to comply with him in Geneva after weeks of growing tensions that have seen tariffs on imports of goods between the two largest economies in the world rise far beyond 100 percent.
The commercial dispute, combined with the decision of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, last month of imposing duties to dozens of other countries, has interrupted supply chains, unstable financial markets and fueled the fears of an acute world recession.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, said a tariff of 80 percent on Chinese products “seems correct” on Friday, which for the first time suggests a specific alternative to the 145PC taxes taxes on Chinese imports.
The location of the conversations has remained a secret, although a witness saw more than a dozen police cars outside a private residence in a lush gin suburb.
The Mercedes trucks were seen with dyed windows leaving a Geneva hotel where the Chinese delegation stayed on the shores of Lake Geneva.
Previously, a delegation of more than a dozen US officials, including Besent and Greer, were seen smiling and wearing red ties and American flags in their flaps when they left their hotel. Besent refused to talk to journalists.
