U.S. and China to Meet at Precarious Moment in Trade War

Top officials from the Trump administration will meet with their Chinese counterparts in London on Monday for a second round of economic talks, aiming to cement a trade truce between the world’s two largest economies.

The American delegation will be led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Jamieson Greer, the United States’ trade representative. China will be represented by He Lifeng, the country’s vice premier for economic policy, who led the previous round of talks in Switzerland. The meetings are expected to run through Tuesday, according to people familiar with the matter.

The talks come at a delicate juncture for the global economy, which has been slowed by uncertainty and supply chain disruptions. In April, the United States paused some of the tariffs that Mr. Trump imposed on dozens of countries to provide time for trade negotiations.

Those levies, as well as steep import taxes on Chinese goods, were thrust into further uncertainty in late May, when a U.S. trade court deemed them illegal. The tariffs, however, remain in place while an appeal process unfolds. As the U.S. delegation negotiates in London, the Trump administration faces a deadline to make its case to a federal appeals court for why the tariffs should continue.

The legal limbo surrounding the tariffs could weaken the Trump administration’s hand as it tries to negotiate a broader agreement to give American businesses greater access to China’s market, push Beijing to buy more American products and attract more Chinese investment to build factories in the United States. At the same time, the Trump administration wants to make some tariffs essentially permanent to discourage a flood of Chinese exports of manufactured goods.

The trade war has triggered sudden and drastic shifts in the flow of Chinese goods, most notably a sharp slowdown of Chinese exports to the United States. China on Monday reported that shipments to the United States fell by over 34 percent in May from the same month a year ago, the steepest decline since 2020. The slowdown may have contributed to Beijing’s willingness to meet in London for more trade talks, experts said.