A Chinese expert has described the joint statement on China-U.S. Economic and Trade Meeting in Geneva as "surprising" and "rational", saying it lays a good basis for further negotiation and discussion between the world's two largest economies.
In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Liu Zhiqin, senior fellow at the Renmin University's Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, commented on the statement, which was reached during the just-concluded high-level meeting on economic and trade affairs between China and the U.S. from Saturday to Sunday.
By Wednesday, the United States will modify the application of the additional ad valorem rate of duty on articles of China (including articles of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Macau Special Administrative Region) set forth in Executive Order 14257 of April 2, 2025, by suspending 24 percentage points of that rate for an initial period of 90 days, while retaining the remaining ad valorem rate of 10 percent on those articles pursuant to the terms of the said Order, according to the statement.
The U.S. will remove the modified additional ad valorem rates of duty on those articles imposed by Executive Order 14259 of April 8, 2025 and Executive Order 14266 of April 9, 2025, it said.
The statement also said that by Wednesday, China will modify accordingly the application of the additional ad valorem rate of duty on articles of the United States set forth in Announcement of the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council No. 4 of 2025, by suspending 24 percentage points of that rate for an initial period of 90 days, while retaining the remaining additional ad valorem rate of 10 percent on those articles, and removing the modified additional ad valorem rates of duty on those articles imposed by Announcement of the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council No. 5 of 2025 and Announcement of the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council No. 6 of 2025.
China will adopt all necessary administrative measures to suspend or remove the non-tariff countermeasures taken against the United States since April 2, 2025, it said.
"I think there's a surprising outcome, but also not surprising to the people because as we know, China and the United States, because of the tariffs imposed by the United States that made a great concern and difficulties globally, so because both sides have already come to the cliff of the mountain," Liu said.
"So in this way, we have to find a good solution, especially when, [at] this extremist time point, both sides have really rationally come to a good common point. This outcome is a victory of the spirit of opening up, a [the] spirit of mutual coordination and cooperation and also international cooperation," he said.
The statement, released earlier Monday, also said the two sides will establish a mechanism to continue discussions about economic and trade relations, and as required, they may conduct working-level consultations on the relevant economic and trade issues.
Liu said the mechanism is necessary and expected to serve as a basic ground to increase the market confidence in the future for companies in China and the U.S. and in the rest of the world.
"I think the mechanism to solve the dispute and find a good solution is very necessary. This is a very international practice because many countries need such a mechanism. But [for] how to make the mechanism more effective, more reasonable, this is a base effort from both sides. If both sides have a good mutual understanding, I think any problem difficult can be solved and discussed and negotiated," Liu said.
"So the mechanism is quite a very basic ground and guarantee to increase the market confidence in the future, so not only for the companies in China, but also for the United States and for the rest of the global community, because they said, 'Okay, they have a mechanism to solve the disputes,' so they can make all this business more freely, more relaxing," he said.
"So in this way, this is really a good new driving force for new development in the future. So the mechanism for solving this dispute will be given greater importance and significance to play greater role to solve all the problems we are facing. But actually, we have already prepared that in the future. We will have more questions, more new challenges could come up. So for both sides, we need patience, we need high wisdom to solve all these problems by this mechanism," said the expert.
China-US statement on Geneva meeting surprising, rational: expert
