AsianFin -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday suggested upcoming direct contact between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping is required as trade talks between the world’s superpowers came to standstill.
Credit：Xinhua News Agency
Bessent said the progress has been slow since U.S. and Chinese high-ranking officials met in Geneva from May 10 to 11 and resulted in a temporary truce in the trade war, and talks between Washington and Beijing are “a bit stalled”.
The Treasury chief though expected more dialogues with China in coming weeks. “I would say that they [Talks with China] are a bit stalled, I believe that we will be having more talks with them in the next few weeks,” he said in an interview with Fox News.
Bessent raised possibility of a direct call between Trump and Xi in the coming weeks to push forward a deal. "I believe we may at some point have a call between the president and party Chair Xi," Bessent said.
Bessent said the magnitude and complexity of the U.S.-China talks requires both leaders to weigh in with each other. Noting Trump and Xi have “a very good relationship”, he felt confident that “the Chinese will come to the table when president Trump makes his promises known.”
During a high-level meeting on economic and trade affairs in Geneva, U.S. and China had agreed to a 90-day pause on further trade measures.
The U.S. lowered reciprocal tariffs of 125% on Chinese goods to 10%, and a 20% tariff tied to the fentanyl crisis remained. China accordingly cut its tariffs on U.S. goods to 10% from 125%. China also agreed to adopt all necessary administrative measures to suspend or remove the non-tariff countermeasures taken against the United States since April 2.
In addition, the two countries decided to establish a mechanism to continue discussions about economic and trade relations, and the discussions may be conducted alternately in China and the United States, or a third country upon agreement of both sides.
However, recent reports indicated the Trump administration’s new attempt to curb China’s development of high-tech would complicate the trade talks.
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) under the U.S. Commerce Department has issued an directive via letters to electronic design automation software makers including Cadence, Synopsys and Siemens EDA, asking these firms to stop selling their services to Chinese groups, the Financial Times (FT) on Wednesday cited people familiar with the move.
Washington has considered rules restricting the export of EDA tools to China since U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term, but were ruled out as too aggressive, said a former Commerce Department official , per the FT. EDA, or Electronic Design Automation, is a specialized category of software used by electronics engineers to design, simulate and verify electronic systems and circuits.
The New York Times on Wednesday reported that some sales to China of critical U.S. technologies, not just semiconductor, but also those related to jet engines and certain chemicals also have been suspended. The suspension is a response to Beijing’s recent restrictions on exports of critical minerals to the U.S, the report quoted people familiar with the matter.
The source said the Commerce Department had paused some licenses to ban American companies from selling products and technology to the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), which is developing its C919 aircraft.
It was reported that the new export curbs appear to part of a broader review within the Commerce Department of exports of strategic goods to China.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Commerce Department said later Wednesday it is “reviewing exports of strategic significance to China.” “In some cases, Commerce has suspended existing export licenses or imposed additional license requirements while the review is pending,” the spokesperson said, not responding to inquiry regarding which companies have been affected.
Bessent made remarks after federal appeals court on Thursday granted a request from the White House to temporarily pause the lower U.S. court’s ruling blocking the Trump administration’s tariffs on worldwide trading partners.
Bessent said the trade court’s ruling didn’t cause any change in ongoing trade talks, and the Trump administration is still targeting fair trade and striking the best deals for American people. “We’ve seen no change in their attitude in the last 24 hours,” said the Treasury Secretary, referring to major U.S. trading partners seeking deals with the U.S.
Bessent said he would hold talks with a Japanese delegation on Friday in Washington, and there were a “couple very large” trade deals that were close.
