US Treasury Sec. Bessent: Both sides on reciprocal tariffs will move down 115%
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is speaking at the scheduled briefing on the first round of high-level US-China trade talks held over the weekend in Geneva, Switzerland.
Key quotes
- We have reached an agreement on a 90-day pause and substantially moved down tariff levels.
- Both sides on reciprocal tariffs will move down 115%.
- Very good personal interaction, both sides represented national interests well.
- Neither side wants a decoupling.
- Neither side wants the equivalent of a trade embargo.
- We would like to see China more open to US goods.
- We think there is a possibility of purchase agreements to bring bilateral trade deficit into balance.
- We look forward to very good discussions now that we have the Geneva mechanism for talks.
- There was no discussion on currency.
- We have a very good mechanism to avoid that unfortunate escalations happen again.
- There's a chance, if we can open up trade to China, we could have more fair trade towards the US and rebalance together.
- The UK and Switzerland have moved to the front of the queue for trade deals, the EU is much slower.
Market reaction
The US Dollar Index is extending gains on these comments, up 0.84% on the day to regain 101.00 as of writing.
US Dollar PRICE Today
The table below shows the percentage change of US Dollar (USD) against listed major currencies today. US Dollar was the strongest against the Euro.
| USD | EUR | GBP | JPY | CAD | AUD | NZD | CHF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USD | 0.81% | 0.55% | 0.43% | 0.35% | -0.35% | 0.24% | 0.65% | |
| EUR | -0.81% | -0.13% | 0.15% | 0.04% | -0.52% | -0.09% | 0.30% | |
| GBP | -0.55% | 0.13% | 0.49% | 0.16% | -0.39% | -0.03% | 0.44% | |
| JPY | -0.43% | -0.15% | -0.49% | -0.09% | -1.41% | -1.06% | -0.03% | |
| CAD | -0.35% | -0.04% | -0.16% | 0.09% | -0.44% | -0.12% | 0.27% | |
| AUD | 0.35% | 0.52% | 0.39% | 1.41% | 0.44% | 0.34% | 0.81% | |
| NZD | -0.24% | 0.09% | 0.03% | 1.06% | 0.12% | -0.34% | 0.37% | |
| CHF | -0.65% | -0.30% | -0.44% | 0.03% | -0.27% | -0.81% | -0.37% |
The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the US Dollar from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the Japanese Yen, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent USD (base)/JPY (quote).
Author
Dhwani Mehta
FXStreet
Residing in Mumbai (India), Dhwani is a Senior Analyst and Manager of the Asian session at FXStreet. She has over 10 years of experience in analyzing and covering the global financial markets, with specialization in Forex and commodities markets.
