Finance & economics | Descending from the peaks

America and China prepare for an Alpine trade clash

Might tariffs fall from their mountainous highs?

Scott Bessent waks in the Rose Garden during an at the White House, Washington DC
Photograph: EPA
|Hong Kong|5 min read

SWITZERLAND ALWAYS imagined it would be where the fate of the global trading system was decided. It was in Geneva in 1947 that 23 countries signed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which governed negotiations over the next four decades. Geneva is also home to the World Trade Organisation, founded with high hopes in 1995. Switzerland’s position has been jeopardised by President Donald Trump’s disdain for the WTO and his love of tariffs. But Geneva once again finds itself hosting high-stakes trade talks between the world’s biggest economies.

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