Sawt Falasteen - US and China meet in bid to 'de-escalate' trade war

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer were conferring with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in the first such talks between the world's two largest economies since Trump slapped steep new levies on China last month.

Shortly after 9:30 am (0730 GMT), Bessent, Greer and around a dozen more US delegates marched through the lobby of Geneva's luxury Intercontinental hotel, ignoring journalists' requests for comment before ducking into waiting cars and speeding off.

The Chinese delegation left from another five-star hotel, the President Wilson on the shores of Lake Geneva, with large police contingents escorting the two convoys through the city, blocking all other traffic on their routes.

By late morning, Chinese state media confirmed the weekend-long talks had begun.

The exact venue had been shrouded in secrecy, but AFP determined they were being held in a discreet location on the other side of the city.

Tariffs imposed on the Asian manufacturing giant since the start of the year currently total 145 percent, with cumulative US duties on some Chinese goods reaching a staggering 245 percent.

In retaliation, China slapped 125 percent levies on US goods, cementing what appears a near trade embargo between the world's two largest economies.

Trump signalled on Friday that he could lower the sky-high tariffs on Chinese imports, taking to social media to suggest that an "80% Tariff on China seems right!".

"The president would like to work it out with China.... He would like to de-escalate the situation," US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Fox News on Friday.

Trump's press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, clarified that the US would not lower tariffs unilaterally, adding that China would need to make concessions as well.

In any case, a move to that level would be a symbolic gesture, since the tariffs would remain prohibitively steep.

- 'Not good' relationship -

"The relationship is not good" between Washington and Beijing, noted Bill Reinsch, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"We have trade-prohibitive tariffs going in both directions. Relations are deteriorating," said Reinsch, a longtime former member of the American government's US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

"But the meeting is a good sign."

"I think this is basically to show that both sides are talking -- and that itself is very important," Xu Bin, professor of economics and finance at the China Europe International Business School, told AFP.

"Because China is the only country that has tit-for-tat tariffs against Trump's tariffs."

Beijing has insisted the United States must lift tariffs first and vowed to defend its interests.

Bessent has said the meetings in Switzerland would focus on "de-escalation" and not a "big trade deal".

The head of the Geneva-based World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said on Friday she welcomed the talks, calling them a "positive and constructive step toward de-escalation".

- 10-percent 'baseline' -

Bessent and He will meet two days after Trump unveiled a trade agreement with Britain, the first deal with any country since he unleashed his blitz of sweeping global tariffs.

The five-page, non-legally binding document with London confirmed to nervous investors that the United States is willing to negotiate sector-specific relief from recent duties -- in this case on British cars, steel and aluminium.

In return, Britain agreed to open up its markets to US beef and other farm products.

But a 10-percent baseline levy on most British goods remained intact and Trump remains "committed" to keeping it in place for other countries in talks with the United States, Leavitt told reporters on Friday.

A few hours later, Trump appeared to contradict her, suggesting there could be some flexibility to the baseline -- but only if the right deals could be reached.

"There could be an exception at some point. We'll see," he said.

"If somebody did something exceptional for us, that's always possible."

burs-da-nl/vog/rmb

I.Matar--SF-PST