HONG KONG — The United States and China said Monday they had agreed to a 90-day pause on most of the tariffs they have imposed on each other since last month, in a major step toward easing a trade war between the two powers that has rattled the global economy.
U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports will be cut to 30% from 145%, while China’s levies on U.S. imports will be cut to 10% from 125%, the two countries said in a joint statement.
The announcement comes after officials from the two countries met in Geneva, Switzerland, over the weekend for their first face-to-face talks on the tariffs, which began mounting following President Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping global duties. The tariffs have made trade between the world’s two largest economies all but impossible and threatened to upend the global economy.
“We were able to have very constructive and positive conversations with our Chinese counterparts, who clearly came to deal this week,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said at a news conference in Geneva.
Speaking at a regular news briefing in Beijing at the same time, a foreign ministry spokesperson declined to make further comments on the announcement, referring reporters to the joint statement.
In the statement, the two countries said they would also “establish a mechanism to continue discussions about economic and trade relations.” The U.S. will continue to be represented by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Greer, while China will continue to be represented by Vice Premier He Lifeng.
The discussions may take place alternately in China and the U.S., or in a third country agreed upon by both countries. The two sides may also conduct working-level consultations on relevant economic and trade issues.
The afternoon announcement sent Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index soaring and the Chinese index closed more than 3% up. Mainland Chinese markets closed higher before details of the agreement were released.
European indexes were also trading higher early Monday, with U.S. stocks leaping in pre-market trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2% and the S&P 500 index was up 2.6%.
Markets across Asia had upbeat sessions Monday in anticipation of some kind of agreement from the U.S.-China talks, as well as a ceasefire between India and Pakistan that seems to be holding after conflict erupted between the two South Asian rivals last week.
