Closing post
Time to wrap up….
Donald Trump has floated cutting tariffs on China from 145% to 80% before a weekend meeting as he looks to de-escalate the trade war.
Top US officials are expected to meet a high-level Chinese delegation this weekend in Switzerland in the first significant talks between the two nations since Trump provoked a trade war with stiff tariffs on imports.
The US president wrote “80% Tariff on China seems right! Up to Scott B” on his social media account on Friday morning, referring to Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary.
Bessent and Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative, will meet their counterparts in Geneva in the most senior known conversations between the two countries in months, the Trump administration announced this week. It comes amid growing US market concern over the impact of the tariffs on the prices and supply of consumer goods.
Stock markets in Europe have rallied on hopes of a thawing between the two sides.
The latest trade data from China has shown that exports to the US, and imports the other way, both fell in April, as shipments to the rest of the world picked up.
While in the UK, Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has said the UK now needs to do everything it can to rebuild its long-term trade relationship with the European Union.
He told the BBC:
“Having a more open economy to trade with the European Union … would be beneficial, because there has been a fall-off in goods trade with the EU over recent years.”
The Bank’s chief economist, Huw Pill, has predicted that US tariffs are not likely to have a “dramatic” effect on Britain’s economy.
In a presentation today, Pill said:
“The analysis in the baseline forecast does not suggest that there’s a dramatic shift in the behaviour of the UK economy on the back of these trade announcements and trade uncertainties.”
Updated
Switzerland and the United States have agreed to accelerate their trade talks and are determined to reach an agreement quickly, Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter has revealed.
Keller-Sutter was speaking at a news conference after meeting US treasury secretary Scott Bessent and chief trade negotiator Jamieson Greer in Geneva, ahead of their talks with China this weekend.
