China confirms US trade talks in Stockholm as tariff 'truce' continues

By Berk Kutay Gokmen

ISTANBUL (AA) - Beijing on Wednesday confirmed that China and the US will hold trade talks in Stockholm next week, as the deadline for a tariff deal approaches.

Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng will lead talks from Beijing's side in Sweden on July 27-30, the Commerce Ministry said.

Beijing’s remarks came after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that he expects to negotiate an extension of President Donald Trump’s tariff deadline with China during meetings in Stockholm next week.

Bessent said the deadline expires on Aug. 12, and that he "will be working out what is likely an extension.”

The US and China agreed in May to a 90-day suspension of steep tariffs to continue negotiations.

“I think trade is in a very good place with China,” Bessent said. “We’ve actually moved to a new level with China, where it’s very constructive.”

He said the US hopes China will “pull back on some of this glut of manufacturing that they're doing and concentrate on building a consumer economy” and discuss “the sanctioned Russian and Iranian oil … and what they’re doing to aid Russia” in Ukraine.

According to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Andrew Browne, China has "completely outplayed the Trump administration on trade."

Browne, who lived and worked in China until 2018, described the trade framework between Washington and Beijing as a trade "truce."

"Both sides have recoiled from this (tariff war). It was going to have enormous damage, both to their own economies and, of course, to the global economy since the two of them combined are 50% of global GDP," Browne told the Q+A with Jack Tame, a YouTube broadcaster.

"That is where we are now; we are at a truce. Trump thinks he has a deal, he does not have deal, ... he has a truce."