LONDON—The marathon trade talks between the U.S. and China ended before midnight on Tuesday, bringing to an end the second day of talks that had begun nearly 14 hours earlier.
“We have reached a framework to implement the Geneva consensus and the call between the two presidents,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters as he left the meeting.
In Geneva last month, the U.S. and China reached a preliminary agreement that focused on rare earth shipments from China and reductions of U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods that had climbed above 100 percent. In recent weeks, however, the two countries had come to loggerheads as progress on those measures stalled.
Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke on the phone and agreed to a new round of talks to restart the process.
Lutnick, who stood beside U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer outside the historic Lancaster House in London, said both sides would now go back to their presidents and brief them on the results of the talks. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had left the talks a few hours earlier for hearings on Capitol Hill. If both presidents approve the deal, the countries will begin to implement the agreement.
“When you put President Xi and President Trump on the phone together, it changes the outcome,” Lutnick said.
Secretary Lutnick declined to elaborate on the precise nature of the framework or the “Geneva consensus.”
Lutnick said the talks stretched on for so long because of the need to translate the words of both sides, a process that led to a very slow pace for the negotiations.
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