Bessent has said the meetings in Switzerland would focus on “de-escalation” and not a “big trade deal”.
The head of the Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO) on Friday welcomed the talks, calling them a “positive and constructive step toward de-escalation”.
“Sustained dialogue between the world’s two largest economies is critical to easing trade tensions, preventing fragmentation along geopolitical lines and safeguarding global growth,” WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said, according to a spokesperson.
Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter also sounded an upbeat note.
“Yesterday the Holy Spirit was in Rome,” she said Friday, referring to the election of Pope Leo XIV. “We must hope that he will now go down to Geneva for the weekend.”
10 PER CENT BASELINE
Bessent and He will meet two days after Trump unveiled what he called a historic trade agreement with Britain, the first deal with any country since he unleashed a blitz of sweeping global tariffs last month.
The five-page, non-legally binding document confirmed to nervous investors that the United States is willing to negotiate sector-specific relief from recent duties – in this case, on British cars, steel and aluminium.
In return, Britain agreed to open up its markets to US beef and other farm products.
But a 10 per cent baseline levy on most British goods remained intact, and Trump remains “committed” to keeping it in place for other countries in talks with the United States, Leavitt told reporters.
