Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent: “I’m happy to report that we made substantial progress between the United States and China in the very important trade talks. First, I want to thank our Swiss host. The Swiss government has been very kind in providing us this wonderful venue, and I think that led to a great deal of productivity we’ve seen. 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.”
U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer: “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. 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.”
The United States will (i) modify the application of the additional ad valorem rate of duty on articles of China (including articles of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Macau Special Administrative Region) set forth in Executive Order 14257 of April 2, 2025, by suspending 24 percentage points of that rate for an initial period of 90 days, while retaining the remaining ad valorem rate of 10 percent on those articles pursuant to the terms of said Order; and (ii) removing the modified additional ad valorem rates of duty on those articles imposed by Executive Order 14259 of April 8, 2025 and Executive Order 14266 of April 9, 2025.
China will (i) modify accordingly the application of the additional ad valorem rate of duty on articles of the United States set forth in Announcement of the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council No. 4 of 2025, by suspending 24 percentage points of that rate for an initial period of 90 days, while retaining the remaining additional ad valorem rate of 10 percent on those articles, and removing the modified additional ad valorem rates of duty on those articles imposed by Announcement of the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council No. 5 of 2025 and Announcement of the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council No. 6 of 2025; and (ii) adopt all necessary administrative measures to suspend or remove the non-tariff countermeasures taken against the United States since April 2, 2025.
After taking the aforementioned actions, the Parties will establish a mechanism to continue discussions about economic and trade relations. The representative from the Chinese side for these discussions will be He Lifeng, Vice Premier of the State Council, and the representatives from the U.S. side will be Scott Bessent, Secretary of the Treasury, and Jamieson Greer, United States Trade Representative. These discussions may be conducted alternately in China and the United States, or a third country upon agreement of the Parties. As required, the two sides may conduct working-level consultations on relevant economic and trade issues.
【川普話語真實意涵】
川普總統於5月12日，針對美中關稅談判達成協議、並發表聯合聲明，對媒體說：它將有利於雙方的一致與和平I think it's going to be great for unification and peace，卻被中文媒體翻譯成「有利於統一與和平」，令人啼笑皆非。該段談話的實際內容是，川普說：
Yesterday, we achieved a total reset with China after productive talks in Geneva. Both sides now agreed to reduce the tariffs imposed after April 2nd to 10% for 90 days as negotiators continue on the larger structural issues. And I want to tell you that a couple of things. First of all, that doesn't include the tariffs that are already on that are our tariffs. And it doesn't include tariffs on cars, steel, aluminum, things such as that. Or tariffs that may be imposed on pharmaceuticals because we want to bring the pharmaceutical businesses back to the United States and they're already starting to come back now based on tariffs uh because they don't want to pay 25, 50 or 100% tariffs. So, they're moving them back to the United States. I spoke to Tim Cook this morning and he's going to I think even up his uh his numbers 500 billion dollars. He's going to be building a lot of plants in the United States for Apple and uh we look forward to that. I really do look forward to that. But the talks in Geneva were very friendly. The relationship is very good. We're not looking to hurt China. China is being hurt very badly. They were closing up factories. They were having a lot of unrest and they were very happy to be able to do something with us and the relationship is very very good. I'll speak to President Xi maybe at the end of the week. Uh we have some other things we're doing and they've agreed to open China, fully open China and uh I think it's going to be fantastic for China. I think it's going to be fantastic for us and I think it's going to be great for unification and peace. China will also suspend and remove all of its non-monetary barriers. They've agreed to do that while uh they're very numerous. But again, to me, the biggest thing that came out of that meeting is they've agreed. Now we have to get it papered, but they've agreed to open up China. Going to be great for everybody.
