China and the US will hold their first trade talks since President Donald Trump took office and more than a month after the two sides imposed tariffs of more than 100% on each other.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will travel later this week to Switzerland for talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, seeking to dial down a tariff standoff that has threatened to hammer both economies and other nations. The announcements early on Wednesday Beijing time boosted hopes that the two largest economies in the world might pull back from their actions which had threatened to effectively eliminate bilateral trade.

China said that it had to talk after approaches from US officials, but the Ministry of Commerce emphasized that “any dialogue and negotiation must be carried out under the premise of mutual respect, equal consultation, and mutual benefit,” adding that the US needed to “show sincerity in talks, correct wrong practices, meet China halfway, and resolve the concerns of both sides through equal consultation.”

The US is looking to “de-escalate” tensions, Bessent said on Fox News, calling the current level of tariffs “unsustainable” and saying the US doesn’t want to break completely with China. However, the US does “want to decouple over strategic industries,” he said, mention steel, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals as examples of sectors where the US wants to reshore manufacturing from China and elsewhere. 

How damaging the tariffs have already to bilateral trade will become clearer this Friday when China released April trade figures, but high-frequency data is already showing that overall the effect has been muted so far, with Chinese ports processing more cargo in the final week of April than in any other week since the start of 2023. Shanghai port, one of the largest in the world, processed 4.5 million containers last month, according to data released on Wednesday, the most since August 2024. 

—James Mayger in Beijing

Bloomberg’s tariff tracker follows all the twists and turns of global trade wars. Click here for more of Bloomberg.com’s most-read stories about trade, supply chains and shipping.

Charted Territory

Freight Rates | Weekend meetings to de-escalate the punitive tariff war between the US and China can’t come soon enough for global trade. The latest sign of stress can be seen in freight rates as container liners begin to sever shipping routes that link the US and China across the Pacific. German container shipping group Hapag-Lloyd has canceled 30% of China-to-US bound shipments, according to a spokesperson. Swiss liner Kuehne + Nagel said some trades had stopped completely, while it expected a 25% to 30% drop in bookings from China to the US, CEO Stefan Paul said.

Today’s Must Reads

• The US trade deficit widened to a record in March. The goods shortfall with Ireland more than doubled — larger than the US’s gap with China. It was also wider than that of Canada and Mexico.
• The UK and US are in intensive discussions about an economic agreement that would reduce the impact of some tariffs.
• India and the UK agreed to a trade deal — though there’s been a backlash by Britain’s opposition parties on a tax component of the pact.
• The EU plans to hit about €100 billion in US good with additional levies in the event ongoing trade talks fail to yield a satisfactory result.
• Shein and Temu saw double-digit sales declines in the week after they raised retail prices to cover the costs of increased US tariffs. 
• Hugo Boss is rerouting products made in China to non-US markets.
• Americans look headed for a much different Christmas, with higher prices, fewer new products and dwindling deals.

On the Bloomberg Terminal

• The trade deal with the UK marks another step in India’s bid to integrate its industrial sector into global supply chains by expanding market access for its manufacturers, Bloomberg Economics says.
• For Bloomberg Economics trade analysis: BECO MODELS TRADE
• Click here for Bloomberg Intelligence’s Tariff Matrix.
• Run SPLC after an equity ticker on Bloomberg to show critical data about a company's suppliers, customers and peers.
• Use the AHOY function to track global commodities trade flows.
• See DSET CHOKE for a dataset to monitor shipping chokepoints. 
• For freight dashboards, see BI RAIL, BI TRCK and BI SHIP and BI 3PLS
• Click HERE for automated stories about supply chains.
• On the Bloomberg Terminal, type NH FWV for FreightWaves content.
• See BNEF for BloombergNEF’s analysis of clean energy, advanced transport, digital industry, innovative materials, and commodities.

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