Chinese and U.S. trade officers arrived for a second day of conferences in the Swedish capital on Tuesday (July 29, 2025) to attempt to break a logjam over tariffs which have skewed the pivotal industrial ties between the world’s two largest economies.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng made no public feedback to reporters after the primary day of talks that lasted practically 5 hours behind closed doorways on the Swedish Prime Minister’s workplace on Monday.
Before the talks resumed on Tuesday, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson met with Bessent and U.S. trade consultant Jamieson Greer over breakfast.
The United States has struck offers over tariffs with a few of its key buying and selling companions — together with Britain, Japan and the European Union — since President Donald Trump introduced “Liberation Day” tariffs in opposition to dozens of nations in April. China stays maybe the largest unresolved case.
“The Chinese have been very pragmatic,” Mr. Greer said in comments posted on social media by his office late Monday.
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“Obviously we’ve had a lot of tensions over the years. We have tensions now, but the fact that we are regularly meeting with them to address these issues gives us a good footing for these negotiations.”
“Whether there will be a deal or not, I can’t say,” Mr. Greer added in the clip posted on X from MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”. “Whether there’s room for an extension, I am unable to say at this level. But the conversations are constructive they usually’re going in the appropriate course.”
Many analysts count on that the Stockholm talks, at a minimal, will end result in an extension of present tariff ranges which can be far decrease than the triple-digit share charges because the U.S.-China tariff tiff crescendoed in April, sending world markets into a short lived tailspin.
The two sides backed off the brink throughout bilateral talks in Geneva in May and agreed to a 90-day pause — which is about to finish on Aug. 12 — of these sky-high ranges. They at the moment stand at U.S. tariffs of 30% on Chinese items, and China’s 10% tariff on US merchandise.
Other points on the agenda embrace entry of American companies to the Chinese market; Chinese funding in the U.S.; elements of fentanyl made in China that attain U.S. shoppers; Chinese purchases of Russian and Iranian oil; and American steps to restrict exports of Western expertise, like chips that assist energy synthetic intelligence techniques.
Wendy Cutler, a former U.S. trade negotiator and now vice chairman on the Asia Society Policy Institute, stated that Mr. Trump’s staff would face challenges from “a large and confident partner that is more than willing to retaliate against US interests.” Rollover of tariff charges “should be the easy part,” she stated, warning that Beijing has realized classes because the first Trump administration and “will not buy into a one-sided deal this time around.”
On Monday, police cordoned off a safety zone alongside Stockholm’s huge waterfront as rubbernecking vacationers and locals sought a glimpse of the top-tier officers by a phalanx of TV information cameras lined up behind metallic limitations.
Flagpoles on the Prime Minister’s workplace had been festooned with the American and Chinese flags.
