WASHINGTON — Officials from the United States and China met in Madrid on Sunday for their fourth round of talks aiming to extend a truce in President Donald Trump’s trade war.
The trade war rocked the global economy earlier this year, but relations have stabilized after a series of temporary truces. The latest pause on U.S. tariffs placed on imports from China is scheduled to expire in November, and officials from both countries are under pressure to prevent relations from backsliding.
Trump’s tariffs have added pressure on inflation, which remains elevated. The Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates this week, a move intended to encourage economic growth that can also boost inflation. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Jamieson Greer, the U.S. trade representative, are leading the negotiations on behalf of the United States, and He Lifeng, the vice premier for economic policy, is leading the talks for China.
The talks are focusing on “national security, economic and trade issues of mutual interest, including TikTok and cooperating on money-laundering networks that threaten both the United States and China,” a statement from the Treasury Department said. China’s state media agency, Xinhua, said the two sides would discuss economic and trade issues including “the U.S. unilateral tariff measures, the abuse of export controls and TikTok.”
Trump has until Wednesday to enforce or delay a law requiring TikTok to be separated from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, or face a ban in the United States.
The president has already delayed enforcing the law three times. Congress passed the bipartisan legislation last year to ban TikTok in the country unless it found a non-Chinese owner because of concerns that the social media app’s ties to China made it a national security threat to the United States.
The talks lasted more than six hours Sunday and are expected to continue into Monday or Tuesday. Bessent plans to join Trump for a state visit in London on Wednesday.
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