White House announces trade deal with China without giving further details

The White House announced Sunday that after marathon negotiations in Switzerland, the United States and China reached a trade agreement, the details of which will be revealed this Monday.

The White House issued a brief statement citing statements by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who led the U.S. delegation and announced the trade deal this Sunday afternoon.

"I’m happy to report that we made substantial progress between the United States and China in the very important trade talks," Bessent told reporters, before thanking the Swiss government for its "generosity" and hosting the negotiations. "We will be giving details tomorrow, but I can tell you that the talks were productive. We had the vice premier, two vice ministers, who were integrally involved, Ambassador Jamieson, and myself. And I spoke to President Trump, as did Ambassador Jamieson, last night, and he is fully informed of what is going on. So, there will be a complete briefing tomorrow morning."

Meanwhile, ambassador and trade representative Greer highlighted the speed with which Chinese and U.S. officials reached agreements, demonstrating that the gap and differences between the two powers were perhaps not as great as they thought.

"This was, as the Secretary pointed out, a very constructive two days. It’s important to understand how quickly we were able to come to agreement, which reflects that perhaps the differences were not so large as maybe thought," Greer said. "That being said, there was a lot of groundwork that went into these two days. Just remember why we’re here in the first place — the United States has a massive $1.2 trillion trade deficit, so the President declared a national emergency and imposed tariffs, and we’re confident that the deal we struck with our Chinese partners will help us to work toward resolving that national emergency."

After both officials struck an optimistic tone regarding the agreement with China, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, who led his country's delegation to the negotiations in Geneva, said, "the meeting achieved substantial progress and reached important consensus."

The United States and China "agreed on establishing a consultation mechanism for trade and economic issues, identify the lead persons on each side and will carry on further consultations relating to trade and economic issues of their respective concerns," the senior Chinese official said. "The two sides will finalize relevant details as soon as possible."

In addition, He Lifeng also announced that a joint communique will be issued on Monday to give further details on the talks.

The negotiations in Switzerland kicked off on Saturday, with a marathon day of more than eight hours of talks where trade and security were at the center of the agenda. According to reports prior to the talks, the U.S. provided China with a list of suggestions and requests to combat the trafficking of chemicals used in the production of fentanyl. This potent opioid represents a severe public health problem on U.S. soil.

China apparently received the list of suggestions and, in order to evaluate them, Chinese President Xi Jinping sent his security czar, Wang Xiaohong, to the negotiations in Switzerland, in a proof that the Asian giant is willing to fight harder against the trafficking of chemicals for the production of fentanyl.

China's attitude motivated the Trump administration to sit down at the negotiating table.