Athira Sethu
Kochi, 15 Sep 2025
On Sunday, Chinese and U.S. officials met in Madrid to speak about their current trade disputes, China’s deadline to sell its U.S. operation of app TikTok, and the pressure of the U.S. on its allies to place tariffs on China for Chinese oil buys from Russia.
The negotiations, initiated by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, and chief trade negotiator Li Chenggang, were held in the Spanish foreign ministry. These negotiations were the fourth in recent months when both nations have gathered in Europe to attempt to de-escalate tensions in their trade relations.
The biggest point of contention in the talks is probably TikTok. ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns the app, has been asked by the U.S. government to dispose of its U.S. business by September 17 or risk being shut down. The experts expect the negotiations to lead to yet another deadline extension, the fourth since President Donald Trump entered the White House.
Aside from the TikTok problem, the U.S. has persisted in imposing high tariffs on Chinese products, a strategy that was launched during Trump’s term. The U.S. is also urging China to cease buying Russian oil, which has become an issue in international politics because of Russia’s participation in the conflict in Ukraine. U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent has called for G7 nations to impose tariffs on Chinese and Indian imports if they keep purchasing oil from Russia.
Low expectations were in place for significant breakthroughs in this round of negotiations. Trade expert William Reinsch said that significant deals are not likely to happen unless there is a bilateral meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Both sides appear to be probing one another’s positions ahead of a possible meeting later in the year, perhaps at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Seoul.
Wendy Cutler, a former American trade negotiator, shared Reinsch’s opinion that significant decisions, such as the fate of TikTok and the cutting of tariffs, could be delayed until the Trump-Xi encounter. She further stated that China would not make substantial concessions unless the U.S. relieves export controls and reduces tariffs, which are of utmost importance to China.
The U.S. is also calling on China to cease supporting Russia with the conflict in Ukraine, specifically in terms of technology products that enable Russia to get around sanctions. Besides the trade talks, the Madrid talks were set to also discuss matters such as money laundering and the U.S. efforts to have China stem illegal exports of technology.
The talks are set to resume with preliminary press conferences scheduled in the afternoon.
