Stockholm Standoff: China and the US Ready to Expand Trade Truce

Senior U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessert and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng are in Stockholm, chairing high-stakes negotiations meant to prolong the current 90-day tariff freeze before it expires on August 12. The main goal is just to avert the fast reimposition of triple-digit tariffs, therefore upsetting world supply lines. Although neither side anticipates significant advances on structural issues, both see a near-term extension as essential protection against a rapid rise.

Important agenda items include halting or overturning additional levies connected to claimed fentanyl trafficking, as well as reciprocal restrictions on rare earth exports, as well as softening U. S. limits on technology exports—most notably a temporary lift on some AI-chip bans to enable communication. Still, there are significant differences regarding China's industrial overcapacity, forced technological transfers, and U. S. national-security policies that neither side is ready to address in this round; consequently, they remain mostly off the table.

Against a backdrop of changing global alliances, these talks take place: the U. S. just reached a 15% tariff pact with the European Union; Beijing and Washington are both eager to stabilize trade in front of a prospective Trump–Xi meeting this fall. Low expectations for a thorough agreement—and possible opposition from fresh U. S. human-rights legislation—nevertheless make extending the truce generally seen as the most realistic strategy to maintain market stability until higher-level negotiations restart.