The White House backed off from the steepest levies, as the costs of an all-out trade war with China threatened global economic growth.

China and the United States announced a truce in their trade war on Monday after talks in Geneva that will roll back the bulk of tariffs and other countermeasures by Wednesday.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer spoke Monday night with CNN's Kaitlan Collins, who asked: "If there were no major concessions made in Geneva by the Chinese officials, some businesses may ask,

I spent four and a half years living there in the mid-1970s during trade negotiations called the Tokyo Round, which set the table for the current negotiations by lowering tariffs on manufacturers. The tariff rates that Trump complains about now were agreed to at the Tokyo Round and a decade later as part of the most-favored-nation round.

The prospects for a major breakthrough still appear slight, but even a small drop in tariffs — particularly if taken simultaneously — could help restore some confidence.

A 90-day pause on punishing tariffs could restart trade between the world’s largest economies. But it is not enough to resolve uncertainty about the economy.

The U.S.-China tariff deal sent the tech-heavy Nasdaq soaring, entering a bull market, and economists are optimistic that the U.S. may dodge a recession.