AsianFin -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday expressed upbeat on a trade deal with China to avoid reciprocal tariffs after his meeting with Chinese counterparts in Spain.
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Bessent said he feels confident a U.S.-China trade deal is close. He expected further talks to happen before November deadline on reciprocal tariffs. “We’ll be seeing each other again,” he said during a CNBC interview. “Each one of those talks has become more and more productive. I think the Chinese now sense that a trade deal is possible.”
Through the first round of trade talks in Geneva, Beijing and Washington on May 12 reached an agreement on their trade war truce for 90 days, with the U.S. and China agreeing to each lower tariffs by 115%. From mid-May, the U.S. dropped its tariffs on most Chinese goods to 30% from 145%, while China cut its 125% levies to 10%.
After the third round of high-level trade talks in Stockholm from July 28 to 29, China and the U.S. agreed to extend the tariff truce by an extra 90 days, pushing for the continued extension of the pause on 24% of U.S. reciprocal tariffs on China to November 10.
Bessent noted U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer expects the trade deficit with China to“narrow by at least 30% this year and probably more in 2026.” “So the idea here is to come into balance, to have fair trade,” he said.
Bessent also reiterated that he expects a finalized TikTok deal to be announced after President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping talk on Friday.
Bessent made the comments following the fourth round of U.S.-China talks in Madrid. The Treasury chief, who is leading U.S. delegation in the talks, on Monday confirmed both sides are “very close” to resolving the TikTok issue with China. He told reporters the Trump administration and China has reached a “framework” for a deal to keep TikTok operational in the U.S. “I think on the TikTok deal itself, we are very close or we’ve resolved the issue,” Bessent said.
Trump on Monday suggested his administration would finalize a deal with China to keep TikTok alive in the country. During the “big Trade Meeting” between the U.S. and China, a deal was reached “ on a ‘certain’ company that young people in our Country very much wanted to save,” Donald posted on his social media platform Truth Social. Trump said the meeting held in Spain has gone “VERY WELL” and he will be speaking to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday.
China on Monday confirmed senior Chinese officials and their U.S. counterparts have clinched a framework agreement on the TikTok issue through their high-level trade talks in Spain.
During a two-day meeting with U.S. officials in Madrid, China and U.S. engaged in candid and in-depth discussions on TikTok and the relevant concerns of the Chinese side, and the two sides reached a basic framework consensus on resolving issues related to TikTok through cooperation, reducing investment barriers and promoting relevant economic and trade cooperation, said Li Chenggang, China international trade representative with the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and vice minister of commerce, the state news agency Xinhua reported.
