(The Center Square) – Market implications are expected Monday morning worldwide following Sunday’s announcement of a trade agreement between the United States and China.

No details were announced between countries doing an estimated $600 billion in trade annually. The two superpowers have sparred since President Donald Trump’s January inauguration and subsequent tariff implementations coupled with China’s retaliations.

The deal – how comprehensive is unknown, and may be elusive in Monday’s announcement – was reached in Geneva, Switzerland. Tariffs between the countries have escalated to 145% from America on Chinese imports, and 125% from China on American imports.

“We will be giving details tomorrow, but I can tell you that the talks were productive,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a Sunday afternoon statement released by the White House.

The strength of economies created a natural resilience between the countries, China saying it would not be bullied and Trump saying America would be first. This calendar year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 3%, the S&P 500 Index is down 3.8% and the Nasdaq Composite Index is down 7.2%.

Regardless of how detailed an agreement is announced, analysts collectively forecast market tensions to persist.

Following Trump’s Liberation Day moves on April 2, American businesses reported negative impact in the near-term which the president said would later turn positive. Reports say contraction in China’s manufacturing sector was the fastest rate since February 2024.

“We had the vice premier, two vice ministers, who were integrally involved, Ambassador Jamieson, and myself,” Bessent said. “And I spoke to President Trump, as did Ambassador Jamieson, last night, and he is fully informed of what is going on. So, there will be a complete briefing tomorrow morning.”

Bessent and Trade Ambassador Jamieson Greer said the meetings were “constructive” and Swiss hosts were instrumental in helping move things along.

“It’s important to understand how quickly we were able to come to agreement, which reflects that perhaps the differences were not so large as maybe thought,” Greer said in the White House statement. “That being said, there was a lot of groundwork that went into these two days.”

And he added, “Just remember why we’re here in the first place – the United States has a massive $1.2 trillion trade deficit, so the president declared a national emergency and imposed tariffs, and we’re confident that the deal we struck with our Chinese partners will help us to work toward resolving that national emergency.”

Vice Premier He Lifeng led Chinese representation in the meetings with Bessent and Greer.

Late Saturday, Trump on social media said the conversations were going well and agreements on many areas were coming into place. He called it a “total reset.”

According to the Peterson Institute for International Economics, tariffs by China on American products and America on Chinese products was 21.5% or lower from January 2018 until this year. Since Feb. 4, China has four times retaliated against imposed U.S. tariff increases. Chinese tariffs on U.S. exports have gone from 6.5% in January seven years ago to 147.6%, and U.S. tariffs on Chinese exports have gone, respectively, from 10.3% to 124.1%, the institute says.

Before the weekend, Trump was said to be considering lowering the tariffs to 80%.

(The Center Square) – Count North Carolina among the winners for enhanced trade alignment between the United States and the United Kingdom.

President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the deal on Thursday, the 80th anniversary of Victory Day for World War II. The 78-year-old second-term Republican president noted agriculture exports, and the 62-year-old Labour Party leader praised protection and creation of jobs. Both said there is enhanced market access, all of which benefits already robust activity between the state and country.

British capital investment since 2014 exceeds $1.5 billion, says the public-private Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina created by state lawmakers. This includes more than 4,450 jobs and 54 expansions or new companies, lifting the totals to 293 British firms operating in the state and over 23,000 people working for United Kingdom companies.

Pharmaceuticals and medicines, aerospace products and parts, and electrical accessories and parts – including for vehicles – have been staples of North Carolina goods going across the Atlantic. Agriculture products, the state’s No. 1 industry, is fourth on the list. Financial, management and consulting, and activity related to bank lending lead the services sector exports to the United Kingdom.

Estimates on the value of trade between the country and the state are in the $2.5 billion to $3 billion range. Exports from the United Kingdom to North Carolina were about $1.9 billion in the most recent 10 years, and $1.1 billion from North Carolina to the United Kingdom.

North Carolina has several drivers with the British and other countries. The 2.25% corporate income tax is on the way to elimination by 2030; the bond rating is AAA for the Big 3 of Standard & Poor’s Global, Fitch and Moody’s; and electricity costs are nearly 20% lower than the national average. The manufacturing workforce is ranked No. 1 in the Southeast; total labor force exceeds 5.2 million; and colleges and universities number 110.

In 2022, then-Gov. Roy Cooper and Penny Mordaunt, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland minister for international trade, signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation and trade relations. She noted Honeywell and LabCorp among national players and said the UK “is continuing to seek out ways to remove barriers to trade at a state level as part of a wider U.S. trade strategy.”

The White House release says the deal “maximizes the competitiveness and secures the supply chain of U.S. aerospace manufacturers through preferential access to high-quality U.K. aerospace components,” and “creates a secure supply chain for pharmaceutical products.”

On the former, North Carolina is home to HAECO Americas, Collins Aerospace, Honda Aircraft Company, Lockheed Martin and Spirit AeroSystems. For the latter, heavyweights in the state are Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Merck and Eli Lilly.

(The Center Square) – Legislation pending in the Carolinas legislatures would authorize each state to join a convention to amend the U.S. Constitution to limit the power and spending of the federal government.

The federal governments has accumulated a “crushing national debt through unsustainable budgeting and spending,” says a resolution which has already passed the North Carolina House of Representatives and is pending in the Senate.

The U.S. Constitution allows two methods of enacting amendments, North Carolina state Rep. Dennis Ridell, R-Alamance, one of the sponsors of the resolution, told the Senate Judiciary Committee 1 this week. One is by Congress, the other is through a convention of states, the legislator said.

“What this bill does is helps North Carolina join the other 19 states that have already accepted and passed this resolution word for word,” Ridell said.

The resolution has three components: term limits for Congress, imposing fiscal restraints on the federal government, and limits on the power and reach of the government.

“We as state legislators have the power to initiate amendments to the Constitution,” Ridell said. “We don’t have to sit by and wait for Washington to get it right. We actually have a role here.”

In 2020, the national debt was $24 trillion, Riddell told the committee. Today it is $37 trillion.

“If you think that is sustainable and that’s not a problem, you are living in a fantasy world,” he said.

The convention would only be allowed to consider the three issues defined in the resolution, Ridell explained.

It would take 34 states approving the resolution before the convention could be called, he said. He was asked if Congress had tried to adopt solutions to those same three issues.

“If it’s been tried by Congress, it’s failed,” he said. “A balanced budget amendment – we keep waiting for it, no sign of it.”

The North Carolina Senate Judiciary Committee approved the resolution, sending it the Rules Committee.

In South Carolina, a similar resolution, House Bill 3007, calling for a Convention of States, is pending in the state Senate.

The South Carolina Legislature also approved a Convention of States resolution in 2022 which was signed into law by Gov. Henry McMaster.