China’s vice premier He Lipeng held talks with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent early on Saturday in Geneva in a tentative first step towards defusing a trade war that is disrupting the global economy, according to China’s state-owned news agency and two people close to the talks.

Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer were due to meet He in Geneva after weeks of growing tensions that have seen duties on goods imports between the world’s two largest economies soar well beyond 100 per cent.

The trade dispute, combined with US President Donald Trump’s decision last month to impose duties on dozens of other countries, has disrupted supply chains, unsettled financial markets and stoked fears of a sharp global downturn.

US President Donald Trump said on Friday an 80pc tariff on Chinese goods “seems right,” suggesting for the first time a specific alternative to the 145pc levies imposed on Chinese imports.

The location of the talks has been kept secret, although a witness saw over a dozen police cars outside a private residence in a leafy Geneva suburb.

Mercedes vans with tinted windows were seen leaving a Geneva hotel where the Chinese delegation was staying on the banks of Lake Geneva.

Earlier, a delegation of over a dozen US officials, including Bessent and Greer, were seen smiling and wearing red ties and American flags on their lapels as they left their hotel. Bessent declined to speak to reporters.