A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Officials from the U.S. and China are in London today for a new round of negotiations on the tariffs between the two countries that caused global trade to sink in April. The meeting comes after President Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi last week - their first known call since Trump started the latest trade war. NPR's Fatima Al-Kassab joins us now from London. So what can we expect to happen today?
FATIMA AL-KASSAB, BYLINE: So three of President Trump's top team are here - Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. And from the Chinese side, China's foreign ministry confirmed over the weekend that Vice Premier He Lifeng will be representing Beijing. Trump, in a post on his social media platform last week, said the meeting should go very well. And this is the second round of talks between the two countries. The last time they got together for talks was in Geneva last month. And today's talks will continue negotiations between the world's two biggest economies on a tariff war that's really rocked global markets.
MARTÍNEZ: So was there any progress the last time the negotiators got together?
AL-KASSAB: Yeah. So the last talks in Geneva led to a 90-day lowering of tariffs. That put a pause on the more-than-100% tariffs that each side was charging the other on various goods, which had more or less wiped out most trade between them both. President Trump declared the talks in Geneva a success. He said they were a total reset of U.S.-China relations, although tariffs are still about 30% higher than his pauses on other countries' tariffs.
Relations have since taken a bit of a turn for the worse. Both sides accused the other of violating the agreement that they came to in Geneva, and there have been disputes since. China halted its exports of rare earth minerals - they're vital to carmakers and other industries - although President Trump did say last week that President Xi had agreed to let them flow once again to the U.S. So we might learn more about that during this meeting. And there's also been issues around things like visas for Chinese students at American universities. I spoke to Yu Jie. She's senior research fellow on China at the international affairs think tank Chatham House, and she told me how she would describe relations between the two.
YU JIE: So it is only one word that will be able to describe - will be in stalemate. So I think that sense of stalemate relationship will continue even after the trade talk of this week.
AL-KASSAB: And Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who's been leading the negotiations, recently acknowledged that the talks had stalled and said it would be up to the two leaders of the two countries to get them back on track.
MARTÍNEZ: Right. So what happens next?
AL-KASSAB: So while it's good news that these talks are happening at all, analysts say we shouldn't hold our breath to expect any major progress. Yu Jie from Chatham House told me there's still very little convergence between the two sides and what they both want.
YU: I think that they're quite far apart. But also, this largely depends on how much pressure that United States can handle and how much pressure that China can handle, because essentially, Beijing is using the exact same playbook as Donald Trump - giving the maximum pressure to your opponents.
AL-KASSAB: So it's unlikely we'll get any further tariff reductions from either side, she says, but there may be some progress around some of those key sticking points - things like the rare earth exports. And China, for its part, would like more access to high-end U.S. computer chips. The U.S. had suspended sales of some of that advanced technology to China, including things like semiconductors. So there may be some progress on these points. These are both two very tough negotiators, so it's still unclear whether they'll reach a breakthrough.
MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Fatima Al-Kassab in London. Thank you very much.
AL-KASSAB: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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