For Washington, a trade agreement with Beijing will be particularly difficult to find because “China is both our greatest economic competitor and our greatest military rival”.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday, April 14 on Monday, April 14, that there was no reason why the American and Chinese economies dissociate despite the reciprocal threats of customs duties, and that there is potentially “a great agreement” to be achieved between the two.
“There is a big agreement to be carried out at some point,” said Scott Bessent in an interview on Bloomberg-TVasked about a risk of decoupling between the two savings. “It has no reason to be, but it could happen.”
Scott Bessent underlined that an agreement with China would be more difficult to achieve than with other nations because “China is both our greatest economic competitor and our greatest military rival. So this will require a somewhat special formula”.
Beijing recognizes a “little step” from Washington
United States and China, the two world’s largest economies, have been engaged in a commercial showdown since Donald Trump launched his global customs from customs from Chinese imports.
The American president warned on Sunday that no country was “from business” Faced with his customs offensive, “especially not China which, by far, treats us most badly”, he thundered on his Truth Social network.
Washington announced a compromise measure on Saturday, announcing an exemption from surcharge up to 145% for China for High-tech products, smartphones and computers in mind, as well as on semiconductors. This announcement comforted the world markets that started the upward week.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce admitted the “little step” made by Washington on Sunday On high-tech products, while urging the United States “to take a big step to correct its mistakes, completely cancel the poor practice of reciprocal customs duties and return to the right to the mutual respect”.
Regarding other countries, Scott Bessent has announced that bilateral negotiations “will go fast” to resolve customs disputes. “We had Vietnam last week, Japan on Wednesday, South Korea next week,” he said.
