STOCKHOLM: China and the United States agreed Tuesday to hold further talks on extending their tariff truce, but a top US trade official stressed that President Donald Trump would make any “final call.”
The world’s top two economies met for a second day of negotiations in Stockholm, with both sides seeking to avert tariffs from returning to sky-high levels that had ground trade between the rivals to an effective standstill.
The meeting in a Swedish government building, led on the Chinese side by Vice Premier He Lifeng and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for the Americans, ended without a resolution but with the US side voicing optimism.
Neither government has made public any details from the talks, which started on Monday, although US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Trump would have the “final call” on any extension in the truce.
“Nothing has been agreed until we speak with President Trump,” added Bessent, calling the tone of the talks “very constructive”.
The negotiations are taking place in the wake of a trade deal struck over the weekend that set US tariffs on most European Union imports at 15 percent, but none on American goods going to the EU.
The truce between China and the United States has temporarily set fresh US duties on Chinese goods at 30 percent, while Chinese levies on trade in the other direction stand at 10 percent.
That accord, reached in Geneva in May, brought down triple-digit tariffs each side had levelled at the other after a trade war sparked by Trump spiralled into a tit-for-tat bilateral escalation.
The 90-day truce is meant to end on August 12. But there are indications both delegations want to use the Stockholm talks to push the date back further.
The South China Morning Post, citing sources on both sides, reported on Sunday that Washington and Beijing are expected to extend their tariff pause by a further 90 days.
Trump said he would be briefed again by Bessent on Wednesday. “We’ll either approve it or not,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned from Scotland.