US-China trade talks starting from May 9 in Switzerland

Stage will be set for eventual Trump-Xi summit

- BY NITYA CHAKRABORTY

It is now official. After waiting for a few days since Donald Trump diluted the U.S. tariff rates for China and announced his intention for talks, China confirmed on Wednesday morning that a high level Chinese negotiating team will be visiting Switzerland for four days beginning May 9 to hold talks with the U.S. high level delegation led by the treasury secretary Scott Bessent. This was a result of back channel discussions carried out in the last few days by the two offices of President Trump and President Xi Jinping.

In the ongoing tariff war between U.S. and China, President Trump blinked first late last month when he brought down the rates on some Chinese goods and said that he would talk with President Xi and sort out. Soon after he said that he said that he talked to the Chinese President. He is in the habit of exaggerating. He did not speak directly to President Xi but his advisers were in touch with the officials of the Chinese President. So that way what Trump said about his meeting with Xi was half true. The officials of the two presidencies were talking.

Now after some basics were discussed, the two delegations will be meeting in a third country Switzerland for four days to go into details. The trade talks may not be conclusive this time but this will facilitate the process of holding further meetings so that Trump and Xi can finally meet and sign the agreement. What has to be remembered is that the trade talks are only a part of an overall agreement that Trump is trying to arrive with Xi Jinping as a part of his global narrative. This will be time consuming and if needed will be compartmentalised so that other areas are not affected.