The United States and China ended a session of trade talks Friday without an announcement of an agreement, hours after new tariff hikes took effect and President Donald Trump threatened new ones.
The latest talks were “constructive,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told reporters, but he did not provide details.
“Talks with China continue in a very congenial manner – there is absolutely no need to rush,” Trump said in an early morning series of tweets sent just hours after new tariffs took effect.
Global markets have dropped throughout the week, as investors feared new U.S. tariffs and Chinese retaliatory tariffs will raise prices for consumers and slow the global economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1% on Friday at midday but trimmed its losses a bit after Mnuchin’s statement.
While Trump claimed that “tariffs will bring in FAR MORE wealth to our country than even a phenomenal deal of the traditional kind,” markets analysts noted that China will retaliate by increasing tariffs on U.S. goods.
The results, they said, will be higher prices for consumers, perhaps less trade between the world’s two largest economies, and more complicated negotiations on a new trade agreement.
New U.S. tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods went into effect at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, after the two sides were unable to nail down the details of a new trade agreement during talks on Thursday.
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Rates jumped to 25% from 10% on a massive range of Chinese goods, including office furniture, handbags and frozen catfish fillets.