U.S. Finance and Chinese Deputy Prime Minister to Discuss Suspended High Tariffs at Spain Meeting High-Level Talks between the two countries also led to high-level contacts such as diplomatic and defense phone calls, “eye-gaze” SCMP “coordinating summit agenda”

a U.S.-China tariff war. Yonhap News Agency 사진 확대

a U.S.-China tariff war. Yonhap News Agency

The U.S. and China, which are in a trade war, will hold high-level talks in Spain next week.

Attention is focusing on whether the talks will lead to fruit for the summit between the two countries, which is expected around the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit next month.

The U.S. Treasury Department said in a press release on the 11th (local time) that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant will visit Spain and the U.K. from the 12th to the 18th, and that he will meet with Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Heifeng in Madrid, Spain next week to continue discussing trade, economy and national security. According to the Ministry of Finance, the operation plan of TikTok, a popular Chinese video sharing platform, and the agenda related to joint efforts to eradicate money laundering are also topics of conversation.

Since the enactment of the “TikTok Prohibition Act,” the U.S. has continuously tried to negotiate with China over the sale of TikTok’s business in the U.S. The U.S. is also asking China to cooperate, suspecting that Chinese forces may have been involved in money laundering by drug cartels.

The meeting is notable in that the two countries are actively pursuing diplomatic contacts for a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Bloomberg said the meeting between Bessant and Deputy Prime Minister Huh next week is likely to lead to the first face-to-face summit of the second Trump administration.

The meeting between the two is the fourth high-level trade meeting since the outbreak of the bilateral trade war sparked by Trump’s “tariff bomb.” The two countries, which were scrambling to raise tariff rates amid a mutual retaliation war in April, agreed to significantly lower tariff rates by 115 percentage points each in the wake of the first high-level talks held in Geneva, Switzerland in May. At that time, the two sides canceled 91 percentage points out of the 115% additional tariff rate and suspended the application for 24 percentage points for 90 days.

사진설명 사진 확대

At the third round of talks in Stockholm, Sweden, in July, following a second round of talks in London, Britain, the two sides agreed to extend the tariff moratorium by another 90 days. According to the White House, the grace period is until 0:01 on November 10. The end of the deadline could spark a new trade conflict, although it avoids further increases in tariffs thanks to an interim agreement.

The Trump administration sent a favorable message to China on the same day, withdrawing the nomination of a person who showed hawkish tendencies to the U.S. Department of Commerce. President Trump withdrew his nomination for Landon Hyde, the deputy secretary of export administration at the Department of Commerce, according to Reuters. The Assistant Secretary of Export Administration oversees export controls for strategic materials and high-tech products in the United States. Hyde was deeply involved in global regulations on artificial intelligence (AI) chips and business-related regulations with Chinese biotech companies at the U.S. House of Representatives’ China Special Committee.

Recently, the U.S. and China have been speeding up their efforts to arrange a summit between President Trump and President Xi, with the heads of foreign affairs and defense continuing to communicate one after another. China’s Global Times said in an editorial on the 12th, “The recent (phone) talks between China and the United States are another sign that relations between the two countries are continuously improving this year,” adding, “It has instilled positive and certain expectations in the global economy and international markets.”

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun spoke on the 9th, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke on the phone on the 10th to discuss pending issues between the two countries. “The increase in high-level communication between the two countries amid global confusion and frequent regional disputes greatly reduces the risk of misunderstanding and misjudgment,” the Global Times said. “It creates an environment favorable to solving global challenges such as public security and supply chain stability.”

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) also interpreted that the recent high-level contact between the U.S. and China would have been to coordinate the agenda ahead of the summit between the two countries. Chen Qi, a professor of international relations at Tsinghua University, told SCMP, “This contact is intended to convey a message and manage expectations with a summit between President Trump and President Xi in mind. If the two leaders meet, the possibility of an intensification of the trade war will decrease.” The Washington Post also said, “As high-level diplomacy continues between U.S. and Chinese officials, expectations are growing that President Trump will meet with President Xi as early as next month.”