Business
US and China Meet for First Time Since Trump Imposed Tariffs
Top economic officials from the United States and China are meeting in Geneva on Saturday for high-stakes negotiations that could determine the fate of a global economy that has been jolted by President Trump’s trade war.
The meetings, scheduled to continue on Sunday, are the first since Mr. Trump ratcheted up tariffs on Chinese imports to 145 percent and China retaliated with its own levies of 125 percent on U.S. goods. The tit-for-tat effectively cut off trade between the world’s largest economies while raising the possibility of a global economic downturn.
While the stakes for the meetings are high, expectations for a breakthrough that results in a meaningful reduction in tariffs are low. It has taken weeks for China and the United States to even agree to talk, and many analysts expect this weekend’s discussions to revolve around determining what each side wants and how negotiations could move forward.
Still, the fact that Beijing and Washington are finally talking has raised hopes that the tension between them could be defused and that the tariffs could ultimately be lowered. The impact of the levies is already rippling across the global economy, reorienting supply chains and causing businesses to pass additional costs onto consumers.
The negotiations will be watched closely by economists and investors, who fear that a U.S.-Chinese economic war will lead to slower growth and higher prices around the world. Businesses, particularly those that rely on Chinese imports, are also on high alert about the talks as they grapple with how to cope with the new taxes and the uncertainty about whether they will remain in place.
“Both the U.S. and China have strong economic and financial interests in de-escalating their trade hostilities, but a durable détente is hardly in the offing,” said Eswar Prasad, a former director of the International Monetary Fund’s China division.
“Nevertheless,” he added, “it represents significant progress that the two sides are at least initiating high-level negotiations, offering the hope that they will temper their rhetoric and pull back from further overt hostilities on trade and other aspects of their economic relationship.”
The Trump administration’s negotiators are being led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a former hedge fund manager who has said the current tariff levels are unsustainable. He will be joined by Jamieson Greer, the U.S. trade representative, who helped design Mr. Trump’s first-term trade agenda, which included a “Phase 1” deal with China. Mr. Trump’s hawkish trade adviser, Peter Navarro, was not scheduled to participate in the talks.
He Lifeng, China’s vice premier for economic policy, is leading the talks on behalf of Beijing. The Chinese government has not confirmed who else will be with Mr. He at the meetings or if Wang Xiaohong, China’s minister of public security, who directs its narcotics control commission, will attend. Mr. Wang’s participation would be a sign that the two sides might discuss Mr. Trump’s concerns about China’s role in helping fentanyl flow into the United States.
The trade fight has started to take a toll on the world’s largest economies. On Friday, China reported that its exports to the United States in April dropped 21 percent from a year earlier. Some of the largest U.S. companies have said they will have to raise prices to deal with the tariffs, cutting against Mr. Trump’s promise to “end” inflation.
On Friday, Mr. Trump signaled that he was prepared to begin lowering tariffs, suggesting that an 80 percent rate on Chinese imports seemed appropriate. Later in the day, referring to the China trade talks, Mr. Trump said, “We have to make a great deal for America.” He added that he would not be disappointed if a deal was not reached right away, arguing that not doing business is also a good deal for the United States.
The president also reiterated that he had suggested lowering the China tariffs to 80 percent, adding, “We’ll see how that works out.”
The Trump administration has accused China of unfairly subsidizing key sectors of its economy and flooding the world with cheap goods. The United States has also been pressuring China to take more aggressive steps to curb exports of precursors for fentanyl, a drug that has killed millions of Americans.
China has been steadfast in saying it does not intend to make trade concessions in response to Mr. Trump’s tariffs. Officials have insisted that the nation agreed to engage in talks at the request of the United States.
“This tariff war was launched by the U.S. side,” Liu Pengyu, the spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said this week. “If the U.S. genuinely wants a negotiated solution, it should stop making threats and exerting pressure, and engage in talks with China on the basis of equality, mutual respect and mutual benefit.”
An 80 percent tariff, while a big drop from the current 145 percent, would still most likely shut off most trade between the countries.
China and the United States could take other concrete gestures to help pave the way for future negotiations, other experts said.
One option would be to scale back tariffs to about 20 percent, where they were in early April before Mr. Trump announced 34 percent levies on goods from China and mutual retaliation ensued, said Wu Xinbo, the dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.
“If we can scale back to that stage, then I think it will be a major progress in leading towards more constructive negotiations,” Mr. Wu said.
He said China was prepared to talk about fentanyl as a separate issue, adding that China had offered to sit down with the Trump administration in February after Mr. Trump first announced plans to impose tariffs on Chinese goods, citing the flow of illegal fentanyl into the United States.
The United States and China are meeting in proximity to the headquarters of the World Trade Organization, which has sharply criticized Mr. Trump’s tariff wars. The group has forecast that the continued division of the global economy into “rival blocs” could cut global gross domestic product by nearly 7 percent over the long run, particularly harming the world’s poorest countries. A spokesman for the W.T.O. said it welcomed the talks as a step toward de-escalation.
The alternative — a world in which the United States and China no longer engage in trade — could be economically painful and destabilizing. American consumers, who have come to rely on cheap goods from China, could soon confront thinly stocked store shelves and high prices for the products that remain.
The National Retail Federation said on Friday that import cargo traffic in the United States is expected to decline this year for the first time since 2023, when supply chain problems were persistent, and attributed the decline to Mr. Trump’s tariffs.
“We are starting to see the true impact of President Trump’s tariffs on the supply chain,” said Jonathan Gold, the retail federation’s vice president for supply chain and customs policy. “In the end, these tariffs will affect consumers in the form of higher prices and less availability on store shelves.”
The Trump administration has been racing to make trade deals with 17 other major trading partners after the president’s decision to pause the reciprocal tariffs he announced in April. On Friday, he hailed a preliminary agreement with Britain as evidence that his tariff strategy was working.
Economists have been heartened by signs that the White House appears ready to scale back tariffs.
“This rush to demonstrate progress on ‘deals’ reveals a rising desperation within the administration to roll back tariffs before they hit G.D.P. growth and inflation,” Paul Ashworth, chief North America economist for Capital Economics, wrote in a note to clients. “With the slump in incoming container ships from China raising fears of imminent shortages in the U.S., the pressure is building on the Trump administration to de-escalate that tariff buildup.”
Capital Economics estimates that if the United States lowered its tariffs on China to 54 percent, the overall effective tariff rate on imports for the United States would fall to 15 percent from 23 percent. That would put its growth and inflation forecasts back in line with its estimates from earlier this year that were based on Mr. Trump’s campaign pledges.
It remains unclear whether Mr. Trump would accept a 54 percent tariff rate.
On Friday, he suggested that he was prepared to lower tariffs to 80 percent as he gave Mr. Bessent the authority to make a deal.
“80% Tariff on China seems right! Up to Scott B.,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform.
Later in the day, his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said that 80 percent figure was not an official offer and was instead “a number that the president threw out there.” She added that Mr. Trump would not lower tariffs on China unless Beijing also reduced its levies.
Fox Corp. has agreed to acquire the streaming platform Roku Inc. in a deal valued at $22 billion, the companies announced Monday.
The deal will combine the Murdoch family’s media assets, which include its news, sports and broadcast channels, with the San José-based streaming platform that reaches 100 million consumers globally.
The acquisition would give Fox access to consumer households at a time when the traditional pay-TV universe continues its slow decline as viewers move away from cable and satellite services to video streaming. Fox already owns the free ad-supported streaming service Tubi, which recently became profitable.
“This is a defining moment for Fox and a natural extension of the deliberate and focused strategy we have been executing for nearly a decade,” Fox Corp. Executive Chair Lachlan Murdoch said in a statement.
By owning Roku, Fox gets access to data from the 100 million households connected to the service, which can be used to better target audiences with advertising. The combination would also make Fox less dependent on traditional pay TV platforms for the distribution of its channels.
“While Fox remains in a strong position to monetize its existing portfolio within the evolving pay TV ecosystem, we see this deal as a way to ensure the company’s future as streaming overtakes traditional distribution in the years ahead,” analyst firm MoffettNathanson wrote.
According to Nielsen data, 21% of all internet-connected TV viewing comes through Roku. The Roku Channel, which carries 500 ad-supported streaming networks, accounts for 3% of all TV viewing.
An image of a Roku branded TV.
(Roku)
Research firm EMarketer projects ad revenue of $3.57 billion for Roku this year, up 19% from last year.
Lloyd Greif, chief executive of the Los Angeles investment bank Greif & Co., said that Roku would have been challenged to compete against far better capitalized competitors in the streaming business and that a sale was “inevitable.”
For Fox, the proposed deal makes it a larger player in the digital advertising business. EMarketer senior analyst Ross Benes said the Roku business will “more than double” the company’s revenue in that area.
“It remains to be seen how well the combination of a digitally innovating streaming company will mesh with a media conglomerate rooted in legacy assets,” Benes said. “But the strategy makes sense and it jibes with the continual consolidation that’s occurring in streaming.”
Fox sold its TV and movie production assets to Walt Disney Co. in 2018. Rather than invest heavily in scripted entertainment to compete with emerging streaming companies, Fox decided to concentrate on sports and news.
The Roku deal will put Fox deeper into the distribution network. Over its history, the company has held stakes in satellite TV provider DirecTV and Sky TV.
Fox’s streaming aspirations have been modest up to this point. The company launched its stand-alone direct-to-consumer subscription service Fox One, offering Fox News and other channels outside a pay TV package.
The company acquired the ad-supported streaming service Tubi for $440 million in 2020. The business is now approaching $1.5 billion in annual revenue.
The companies said they are committed to keeping Roku as a “partner-friendly” platform that carries program services that compete with Fox. Brian Wieser, a consultant at Madison and Wall, said that might require some convincing.
“Other content owners may still need Roku’s distribution, but they may be less comfortable with the idea that one of their competitors controls an increasingly important part of the streaming interface,” Wieser wrote in his note on the proposed deal.
Roku shareholders will receive a combination of cash and Fox Corp. stock valued at $160 a share.
The companies say they expect a cost savings of $400 million in the combined entity.
Roku was founded in 2002 by Anthony Wood, a British digital entrepreneur. The company launched a streaming device, the Roku player, in 2008. Within six years, the company sold more than 10 million devices, as the popularity of streaming video rapidly grew.
Fox Corp. shares closed down 11% on news of the deal Monday, ending the day at $54.76. Roku shares closed at $140.90 apiece.
Times staff writer Wendy Lee contributed to this report.
Just two years ago, Monarch Tractor was worth half a billion dollars and ready to shake up the wine industry. In April, it shut its headquarters, laid off its employees and sold its technology to a competitor.
The wine-country startup wanted to revolutionize the cultivation of grapes and other fruit with $100,000 robotractors, but the technology didn’t work well enough. At a time when Waymo’s impressive success and the advent of AI have rekindled excitement about everything driverless, Monarch’s failure to disrupt has become another cautionary tale about massive bets on the latest tech.
The driver optional, battery-powered tractors — built skinny enough to fit in the narrow lanes between the rows of grapevines near its headquarters in Livermore — were going to make it easier and cheaper to handle pests, irrigation and harvesting. They were supposed to use cameras and sensors to collect data, learn what works best and then share that learning online with thousands of other high-tech tractors.
On the back of hopes it could save farmers hundreds of thousands of dollars, the Monarch tractor made Time magazine’s list of the year’s best inventions in 2023. That same year, Monarch was on a Forbes list of startups most likely to reach a $1-billion valuation. It made it halfway there the following year.
“Every farmer around the world is under tremendous pressure because of a lack of labor,” Monarch Chief Executive Praveen Penmetsa told Forbes in 2023, projecting hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. “We are the only all-electric, smart, driver-optional tractor in the world that farmers can buy today.”
But just as the technology seemed poised to move from moonshot to mainstream, customer complaints started coming in.
Patrick O’Connor, who runs Moonvine Wines, an organic vineyard near the Sierra Foothills wine region, was one of the first users and said the tractors too often went rogue, veering off straight paths and damaging his vines.
“It totally failed,” O’Connor said in an Instagram video. “While I was excited to eliminate diesel, run off my solar panels and embrace new technology, it just did not perform. It was actually quite dangerous.”
The potentially world-changing technology wasn’t working as designed. Meanwhile, Monarch hit a wall when its manufacturer — the same company that makes most iPhones — had to stop making the tractors.
“Building and scaling a new tractor platform in agriculture came with unforeseen challenges,” the company said in a statement in April.
Monarch and its founders did not respond to requests for comments.
The company was launched in 2018 with a promising pedigree.
Its founding team included Tesla veteran Mark Schwager and Napa Valley wine scion Carlo Mondavi, the grandson of Napa legend Robert Mondavi.
Penmetsa, the chief executive, had worked for years in the automotive and EV industries, largely in and around Los Angeles.
The company set out with the ambitious goal of bringing battery power, data collection and driverless technology to tractors. If it could pull it off, it could change farming around the world.
The Californian wine industry has been struggling with rising competition and dwindling demand, which could have nudged more farmers to try to save money using Monarch’s technology. It also could have made farmers more cautious about using unproven and expensive new technology.
Monarch may have aimed too high, industry insiders said.
While Monarch was trying to solve two problems at once — making its tractor both electric and autonomous — it didn’t spend enough time thinking about farmers’ needs, said Walter Duflock, vice president of innovation for the Western Growers Assn. Duflock owns San Bernardo Rancho, a fifth-generation family ranch in south Monterey County.
“The electric tractor has struggled to find a use case on the farm,” Duflock said in an interview. “They never got to the point where their electric vehicle was solving a fundamental problem.”
On Duflock’s ranch and many other California farms, there’s little to no charging infrastructure, he said. Even if infrastructure was developed, the time it takes to charge an electric tractor is too long for most farmers who can’t have downtime during busy seasons.
“The notion of sitting there waiting for a charging tractor to finish getting charged just doesn’t fit,” Duflock said.
Duflock heard that the Monarch tractor “would bump into stuff, it would not stop fast enough,” he said. “It just did not work.”
Monarch’s collapse was gradual. In July 2024, the company laid off 15% of its workforce, followed by another round of layoffs in November that year that affected around 35 employees, or 10% of its workforce. A year later, the company warned employees it could lay off 100 workers or even “shut down” in a company-wide memo obtained by TechCrunch.
In November 2025, Monarch Tractor was sued by the Idaho-based dealership Burks Tractor, which accused Monarch of misrepresenting its autonomous technology.
Burks Tractor paid Monarch more than $770,000 for 10 tractors.
“Upon receiving the tractors, Burks Tractor discovered that the tractors did not perform as represented and were unable to operate autonomously,” the complaint said.
A Burks Tractor manager declined to comment due to the ongoing litigation.
Monarch’s vehicles were supposed to be manufactured at a facility in Ohio owned by Foxconn, a Taiwanese electronics company known for assembling iPhones. Foxconn sold the factory in August 2025, shutting down Monarch’s plans there.
In April, Monarch sold the technology it had spent hundreds of millions of dollars developing to construction giant Caterpillar, for an undisclosed amount.
“It means the technology will continue to move forward,” with another company, Monarch said in a LinkedIn post at the time. “Thank you to our employees, investors and customers for being a part of this journey.”
Caterpillar did not respond to requests for comment.
Other companies are plowing forward where Monarch has failed.
For example, farm equipment company John Deere has had more success marketing and selling autonomous farm equipment. It has taken a different approach, gradually incorporating autonomous technology into its existing products. The company’s 8R tractor can operate autonomously while being controlled by a smartphone and has been deployed at large-scale commodity farms growing corn, soy and wheat.
Organic vineyard owner O’Connor still uses his Monarch tractor, but only as a battery and to cut wood with an attachment he has added.
Steven Spielberg’s latest sci-fi thriller, “Disclosure Day,” topped the box office this weekend, an encouraging sign for what could be a big summer for theaters.
The film, which stars Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor, brought in $44 million in the U.S. and Canada for a worldwide total of $92.9 million, according to studio estimates. The opening weekend totals beat box office analysts’ expectations of about $40 million to $50 million.
“Disclosure Day” is Spielberg’s latest alien-centric movie that charts a desperate race to show the world the truth about extraterrestrials.
The film, which had a production budget of about $115 million, was also scored by legendary composer and longtime Spielberg collaborator John Williams, who is now 94 years old.
Spielberg described the film in April as “way closer to truth than fiction” during a speech at the CinemaCon trade convention in Las Vegas. The veteran director of 1977’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” 1982’s “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” and 2005’s “War of the Worlds” said at the time that he’s been curious about “what’s going on in the night” since he was a child and “been very fixated on the possibilities.”
Focus Features’ “Obsession” came in second at the box office with a domestic haul of $19 million, a continuation of the film’s strong run in theaters.
“Scary Movie,” “Backrooms” and “Masters of the Universe” rounded out the top five at the box office.
Recent box office performance — particularly with Gen Z hits “Obsession” and A24’s “Backrooms” — along with a slate of upcoming blockbuster franchise installments has buoyed the hopes of exhibitors and studio executives for a strong summer.
Next week, Walt Disney Co. and Pixar will release “Toy Story 5,” while Warner Bros.’ DC Studios has “Supergirl” landing in late June.
Universal Pictures and Illumination’s “Minions & Monsters,” Disney’s live-action “Moana,” Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” and Sony Pictures’ “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” are all slated for July.
That steady cadence of new and different films is key for a healthy box office and a successful summer, said Daniel Loria, editorial director at the Box Office Co.
“We’re seeing that momentum come back on a weekend-by-weekend basis,” he said. “What we needed to get back to a healthy industry post-pandemic is consistency, and that’s the difference here in 2026.”
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