Geneva: The United States and China on Sunday said that progress had been made after a weekend of negotiations aimed at dropping down merchant stresses caused by President Donald Trump’s aggressive customs development.

The increasingly ugly trade spat between Washington and Beijing has shaken the financial markets and raised fears of a global economic slowdown and an inflationary increase in the United States.

“We have made significant progress between the United States and China in the very important trade negotiations,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told journalists in Geneva after the other day of discussions.

“The negotiations were productive,” he said, taking no questions, but promised a “complete briefing” on Monday about the result.

In a statement Sunday, which gave no further details, the White House paid tribute to what it called a new “trade agreement” with China.

China’s Deputy Prime Minister He Lifeng told journalists that the meetings had achieved “significant progress” that repeated Bessent’s remarks and described the atmosphere as “honest, in -depth and constructive.”

“This is an important first step,” he said, adding that there were plans for joint communication to be published on Monday.

The two sides agree to create a common mechanism that focuses on “regular and irregular communication related to trade and commercial issues,” said China’s international trade representative Li Chengang by the same orientation.

On the question of communication would arrive before the financial markets opened, Li replied: “If the dishes are delicious, the timing is not a question.”

“Every time released, the big, good news,” he said.

The meetings first marked high -ranking officials from the world’s two largest economies have met face to face over trade since Trump escaped steep new charges on China totaling 145 percent, with cumulative US duties on some Chinese goods reaching a staggering 245 percent.

In return, China put 125 percent duty on US goods.

“These discussions mark a significant step forward, and we hope, bodied well for the future,” said the head of the World Trade Organization NGOZI Okonjo-Iweala in a statement shortly after his own meeting with He Lifeng.

“In the midst of current global tensions, this progress is important not only for the US and China, but also for the rest of the world, including the most vulnerable economies,” she added.

Devil in the details

“It’s certainly encouraging,” the Asia Society Policy Institute (Aspi) Vice President Wendy Cutler told AFP after the negotiations were completed.

“The two sides spent over 15 hours in discussions,” she said. “It’s a long time for two countries to meet, and I see it as positive.”

At the forefront of the meetings of the discreet villa residence in Switzerland’s ambassador to the United Nations in the Geneva Signalized Trump that he could lower customs, which suggested on social media that an “80% duty in China seems right!”

However, the White House clarified press secretary Karoline Leavitt later that the United States would not lower customs unilateral. China would also have to admit, she said.

The fact that the negotiations even happen “is good news for business, and for the financial markets,” said Gary Hufbauer, a senior non-resident fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, in an interview while the talks were underway.

But Hufbauer warned that he was “very skeptical that there will be some return to something like normal US trade”. Even a 70-80 percent tariff would still potentially halve bilateral trade, he said.

“The devil will be in the details,” Cutler of Aspi said. “Without the details, it is difficult to assess whether the meeting was successful or not.”

‘Great progress !!’

China’s Deputy Prime Minister went into the discussions that were bent by Friday’s news that China’s exports rose last month despite the trade war.

The unexpected development was attributed by experts for a redirection of trade to Southeast Asia to mitigate US tariffs.

The Geneva Meeting comes after Trump has revealed a trade agreement with Britain, the first with any country since releasing his flash of global tariffs.

The five-page, non-binding agreement confirmed to nervous investors that Washington is willing to negotiate sector-specific relief from the recent tasks. But Trump maintained a 10 percent baseline tax on most British goods.

In a truth social post on Saturday, Trump said the negotiations had made “great progress !!”

“We will see in favor of both China and the US an opening of China for US business,” he added.