During the Davos Forum, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai proposed a new round of trade talks with China before Trump’s visit to China in April, focusing cooperation on basic commodities and services while deliberately avoiding sensitive issues such as rare earths and technology, demonstrating a clear pragmatic tendency. This statement stands in contrast to the US’s tough move of imposing tariffs on 8 European countries, exposing the pragmatic nature of its trade policy.

The proposed talks are a continuation of the 2025 China-US Geneva economic and trade consultation mechanism. The two sides previously lifted 91% of additional tariffs, and bilateral import and export volume reached 4.01 trillion yuan in 2025. The US’s avoidance of the rare earth issue stems from technological shortcomings—its domestic enterprises have not yet broken through heavy rare earth separation technology, while China possesses the world’s only mature large-scale production capacity. China responded that it is willing to implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state and promote cooperation through equal consultation. Amid deep global industrial chain integration, the “dynamic balance” of China-US economic and trade relations is crucial to world economic stability, and the progress of subsequent consultations deserves close attention.