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China says it hopes to agree with US on
tariff reductions 'at an early date'
[September 10, 2026]
BEIJING (AP) — China and the U.S. hope to reach an agreement on lowering
import taxes soon, a Chinese government spokesperson said Thursday,
fueling expectations that an announcement could come when the leaders of
the two countries meet in two weeks.
Negotiators are striving to implement reciprocal tariff reductions on
$30 billion of goods “at an early date," Commerce Ministry spokesperson
Huang Ling said at a weekly briefing.
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Visitors tour a Johnson & Johnson's booth promoting medical machines at
the medical service sector for China International Fair for Trade in
Services (CIFTIS) at the Shougang venue in Beijing, Wednesday, Sept. 9,
2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong) |
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She
did not elaborate. U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese
leader Xi Jinping are expected to meet in Washington on Sept. 24
for what will be their third face-to-face talks in the past
year. Both governments characterize the top leader talks as a
way to stabilize relations in an era of competing interests
between the world's two largest economies.
“Leaders’ diplomacy plays an irreplaceable strategic guiding
role in China-U.S. relations,” Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Thursday.
Trump and Xi agreed at their previous meeting in May in Beijing
to launch a U.S.-China Board of Trade that would manage trade
between the two countries, along with a parallel Board of
Investment. The agreements came after a truce was reached in a
blistering tariff war in which Trump hiked tariffs on Chinese
imports to extremely high levels and China responded in kind.
The talks on reciprocal tariff reductions are a central part of
the negotiations on creating the Board of Trade. The goal is to
identify and reduce tariffs on equivalent amounts of
“non-sensitive” goods on each side.
“Trade will be front and center at the summit,” Barclays Bank
said in a research note this week on the upcoming Trump-Xi
meeting, noting that the truce the two countries reached on
tariffs expires on Nov. 10. But it cautioned that the scope for
a broad trade deal is limited, and that targeted tariff
reductions are more likely.
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