Geneva, May 12 (AP) US and Chinese officials said Monday they had reached a deal to roll back most of their recent tariffs and call a 90-day pause to keep talking to resolve their trade disputes.
Stock markets rose sharply as the globe's two major economic powers took a step back from a clash that has unsettled the global economy.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the US agreed to drop its 145 per cent tariff rate on Chinese goods by 115 percentage points to 30 per cent, while China agreed to lower its rate on US goods by the same amount to 10 per cent.
Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the tariff reductions at a news conference in Geneva.
They said the two sides had set up consultations to continue discussing their trade issues.
Trump last month raised US tariffs on China to a combined 145 per cent and China retaliated by hitting American imports with a 125 per cent levy. Tariffs that high essentially amount to the two countries boycotting each other's products, disrupting trade that last year topped USD 660 billion.
The announcement by the US and China sent shares surging, with US futures jumping more than 2 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index surged nearly 3 per cent and benchmarks in Germany and France were both up 0.7 per cent. (AP)
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