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The White House promotes a "trade agreement with China," but does not provide details

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told reporters that more details would be provided on Monday.

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May 11, 2025, 12:55 PM GMT-4 / Updated May 11, 2025, 3:07 PM GMT-4

By Rob Wile and Megan Lebowitz

The White House promoted a "trade agreement with China" on Sunday, without providing details, after two senior U.S. officials alluded to a possible agreement with China following talks between the two countries in Switzerland over the weekend.

"U.S. announces a trade agreement with China in Geneva," reads the headline from the White House for a transcript of statements by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to reporters.

Bessent and Greer expressed optimism about the state of a possible trade agreement with China, noting that the administration would provide more details on Monday. While Greer referred to an "agreement" and a "deal," neither official provided specifics. China has yet to publicly state whether both countries have reached an agreement.

"I am pleased to report that we achieved substantial progress between the United States and China in the very important trade talks," Bessent told reporters, adding that "the talks were productive."

During the brief comments from Bessent and Greer, which lasted just over two minutes, Greer appeared to reference an agreement between the two parties by describing the talks as constructive.

"As the Secretary noted, these two days were very constructive," Greer said. "It is important to understand how quickly we reached an agreement, which reflects that perhaps the differences were not as great as believed. That said, significant preliminary work was done during these two days."

Greer continued to reference a trade deficit with China and said that "we are confident that the agreement we reached with our Chinese partners" will help the United States to "work to resolve that national emergency."

In April, Trump declared that "foreign trade and economic practices have created a national emergency."

Vice Premier He Lifeng, who led the delegation of Chinese officials, told reporters on Sunday that "the meeting achieved substantial progress and reached important consensus."

The United States and China agreed to establish a consultation mechanism for trade and economic issues, identify the leaders of each party, and continue consultations on trade and economic matters that concern them, he stated. Both parties will finalize the relevant details as soon as possible.

He said the two parties would issue a joint statement on Monday.