US and Chinese officials started talks in Madrid on their stretched commercial links on Madrid, an imminent divestment date for the Chinese video application Tiktok and the requirements of Washington that its allies are placed on tariffs on China for its Russian oil purchases.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US trade representative Jamieson Greer arrived shortly before the Chinese Deputy Minister of Chinese Deputy Prime Minister and Chinese trade negotiator Li Chenggang, at Baroque Palacio de Santa Cruz, houses the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Spanish capital.
The talks mark the fourth time in four months that the delegations have gathered in European cities to try to prevent a fractured commercial relationship of American China from collapsing under the prices of President Donald Trump.
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The delegations met for the last time in Stockholm in July where they in principle agreed to extend 90 days a commercial truce which has greatly reduced the prices for reprisal to three figures on both sides and restarted the flow of minerals of the rare land of China in the United States.
Trump approved the extension of current American rate rates on Chinese products, totaling around 55%, until November 10.
Trade experts said there was little probability of a substantial breakthrough in talks organized by Spain, which has sought to improve links with Beijing in recent years.
The most likely result of Madrid talks is considered another extension of a deadline for the Chinese owner of the Popular Tiktok application, Bytedance, to give in its American operations by September 17 or to face an American closure.
A familiar source with the Trump administration’s discussions on the future of Tiktok said that an agreement was not expected, but that the deadline would be prolonged for the fourth time since Trump took office in January.
Trump launched a Tiktok account last month last month
Tiktok was not discussed in previous cycles of American-Chinese commercial negotiations in Geneva, London and Stockholm. But the source indicated that the public inccede of the issue as an order of the agenda on the announcement by the Treasury of the talks gives to the political coverage of the Trump administration for another extension, which could annoy the Republicans and the Democrats to the Congress who obliged the sale of Tiktok to an American entity to reduce the risks of national security.
Wendy Cutler, former commercial negotiator of the USTR and head of the Asia Society Policy Institute in Washington, said that it expected greater “deliverables” to be saved for a potential meeting between Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping later this year, perhaps during an economic cooperation summit in Asia-Pacific in Seoul at the end of October.
These may include a final agreement to solve US national security problems concerning Tiktok, as well as the lifting of American soy-soy purchases and the reduction of fentanyl prices on Chinese products, and Madrid’s discussions can help lay bases for such a meeting, Cutler said.
But she said that the resolution of American basic economic complaints concerning China, including its requirements according to which China moves its economic model towards more interior consumption and is less based on state -subsidized exports, could take years.
“Frankly, I do not think that China is in a hurry to conclude an agreement where they do not obtain substantial concessions on export controls and lower prices, which are their main priorities,” said Cutler. “And I do not see the United States able to make major concessions either, unless there is a breakthrough on its requests for China.”
Russian oil pressure
The Treasury said that Madrid’s talks would also cover the joint efforts of American Chinese people to combat money laundering, a reference to its long -standing requirements that China reduces illegal expeditions of technological goods to Russia which help their war in Ukraine.
On Friday, Bessent urged the group of seven allies to impose “significant prices” on imports from China and India to put them pressure to stop buying Russian oil, a decision aimed at bringing Moscow to the peace negotiations in Ukraine by slowing down its oil income.
Friday, G7 finance ministers said they had discussed such measures and accepted to accelerate discussions to use frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine’s defense.
Bessent and Greer said in a separate declaration that G7 allies should join the United States to impose prices on Russian oil buyers.
“It is only with a unified effort that cuts income funding Putin’s war machine at the source that we can apply sufficient economic pressure to end the insane murder,” said Bessent and Greer, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The United States has imposed an additional 25% tariff on Indian products on Russian oil purchases by the country, but has so far been abstained to impose such punitive tasks on Chinese products.
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The Hina Ministry of Commerce said that Madrid’s talks would cover economic and commercial issues such as American prices, the “abuses” of export controls and Tiktok.
The time of Spain
The Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, publicly praised the two delegations before the talks start.
A source from the Spanish government said that the choice of Spain for the last “delicate” talks was proof that Madrid was consolidated as a seat of high -level and strategic negotiations.
Madrid sought to be a place for an international peace conference to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The source said that the Spanish government has also taken advantage of the event to strengthen its own bilateral relations with the United States following a series of commitments set with the Trump administration. Spain criticized the organization’s organization offensive of Gaza and refused to undertake to spend 5% of its budget for defense with other NATO members.
Bessent himself also criticized Spain for declaring Beijing a “strategic partner” at the height of Trump’s pricensive offensive in April, saying that a closer relationship with the Asian giant is like “cutting your own throat”.
