AsianFin -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday suggested the next round of negotiations with China would turn to involve more traditional issues.
Credit：Xinhua News Agency
During an interview with CNBC on Monday, Bessent said the Trump administration officials will be engage in talks with Chinese counterparts “in the very near future, and the talks are in a very good place”, without offering details such as the exact timetable and the negotiators taking part in.
In addition to the bilateral trade, Bessent mentioned another issue that could be discussed during the upcoming talks. “The Chinese, unfortunately, are very large purchases -- or are very large purchasers of sanctioned Iranian oil, sanctioned Russian oil. So, you know, we could start discussing that,” he said. The Treasury chief then stressed China needs to rebalance its economy since it has “30% of the world’s export manufacturing, and that can’t get any bigger, , and it should probably shrink.”
Bessent two weeks ago saw meeting with Chinese officials in the coming weeks.
Bessent said on July 7 that he expected to meet with Chinese officials over the coming weeks to discuss trade and other issues on. “One of the things that’s not [on] my portfolio is TikTok, so I can’t speak to that directly,” Bessent told CNBC. “What I can speak to, I’m going to be meeting with my Chinese counterpart sometime in the next couple weeks.”
Bessent touted the high-level trade talks from June 9 to 10 in London that he joined in. “We had good meetings in Geneva and London,” Bessent said. “We both approached it with great respect, the two largest economies, and I think there are things for us to do together if the Chinese want to do it, so we will discuss whether we are able to move beyond trade into other areas.”
While Bessent on July 7 didn’t identify the Chinese counterparts by name that he will talk with in the near term, the state-backed newspaper the Global Times cited Chinese experts that his remarks underscored the importance of the economic and trade relationship between China and the U.S., and indicated a potential shift in the Washington's approach to trade negotiations with China.
