President Donald Trump and the President of China Xi Jinping They are expected to reach an agreement to prevent the imposition of new 100% US tariffs on Chinese goods and are likely to meet in person soon, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant This was announced after talks with Beijing's top trade negotiator.
Bessent told NBC News' “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in an interview Sunday that China was ready to make a deal “after two days of negotiations.”
A “framework” has been prepared for this week’s meeting between Trump and Xi Jinping to avoid Trump threatens tougher tariffs Starting Nov. 1 if Beijing continues with plans to impose restrictions on rare earth minerals, he said.
“I also expect that we will get some reprieve on the rare earth export controls that the Chinese have been talking about,” Bessent said.
China has a near-monopoly on mining and processing rare earth minerals that are critical components of electronic devices and defense technology, and has alarmed the Trump administration over what it sees as a threat to their supply.
“President Trump has given me a lot of leverage in negotiations with the threat of 100 percent tariffs, and I believe we have reached a very strong framework that will avoid that and allow us to discuss many other things with the Chinese,” Bessent said.
Trump arrived in Malaysia on Sunday at the summit Association of Southeast Asian Nationshis first stop is five day tour of Asia The process is expected to culminate in a face-to-face meeting with Xi Jinping in South Korea on Thursday.
Bessent later told NBC News that Trump would likely visit Xi Jinping in Beijing early next year, just ahead of the Lunar New Year on Feb. 17. He said the meeting in Washington would likely take place before Xi Jinping's planned trip to the United States next fall for the G20 summit.
Trump said the first issue he plans to raise with Xi Jinping at the meeting in South Korea is fentanyl. The US blames China for failing to curb the international flow of precursor chemicals to the deadly opioid, which Trump has cited as one of his justifications for imposing tariffs.
China has defended its efforts and said the fentanyl crisis in the US is driven by American demand for the drug.
“I think we can discuss them in helping us get this terrible fentanyl crisis under control,” Bessent said. “I think we can discuss significant issues on soybeans and [agriculture] purchasing for our American farmers.”
China's top trade negotiator, Li Chengang, said on Sunday that China and the US had reached a preliminary consensus after discussing a range of issues, including extending the trade truce, fentanyl and export controls.
Li and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng held talks in Malaysia over the weekend with a U.S. trade delegation that included Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamison Greer.
Trump struck a positive tone after the talks.
“I think we will make an agreement with China,” he said, hinting at possible meetings with Xi Jinping in China and the United States.
“We agreed to meet. We are going to meet them later in China, and we are going to meet in the US, either in Washington or at Mar-a-Lago,” he added.
Peter Alexander And Peter Goh contributed.
