GENEVA, May 12. /TASS/. Neither Washington nor Beijing is interested in severing their commercial relations, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, adding that both sides want more balanced trade.
"The consensus from both delegations this weekend is neither side wants a decoupling. And what had occurred with these very high tariffs <…> was the equivalent of an embargo. And neither side wants that. We do want trade. We want more balanced trade. And I think that both sides are committed to achieving that," he told a press conference following two-day talks between the US and China in Geneva.
During the talks the United States and China managed to create a mechanism for discussing economic and trade issues that will help avoid escalation of tension in the relations between the two countries, Bessent added.
"I think we leave with a very good mechanism to avoid the unfortunate escalations, as we saw after April 2 from happening again, that had been very unusual about the relationship that President [of US Donald] Trump, Party Chairman Xi [Jinping], they had had a good relationship. But the nature of what has happened since April 2 could have been avoided if we had had this kind of mechanism in place. And I believe it is in place now," he said.
"We would like to see China open to more US goods. We expect that as the negotiations proceed, there will also be the possibility of purchase agreements to pull what is our largest bilateral trade deficit into balance, that is, out of balance," Bessent noted.
The talks between the US and China on trade and economic issues were held in Switzerland on May 10-11. The parties agreed on reciprocal reduction of tariffs to 10% and the creation of a mechanism to continue discussions about economic and trade relations.
On April 2, Trump announced introduction of customs tariffs on products from 185 countries and territories. US tariffs on Chinese goods totaled 145%. In response to actions by the Trump administration, China gradually raised tariffs on American goods to 125%.