AsianFin -- Both Washington and Beijing on Sunday sent positive signals on a trade agreement on the horizon following the latest new round high-level talks on the weekend.
AI Generated Image
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to reach a deal to to avoid Trump’s threat of 100% additional tariffs on China, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said after the two-day trade negotiations in the Malasian capital . “I think we have a very successful framework for the leaders to discuss on Thursday,” Bessent said.
Bessent told CBS News that Trump’s new tariff threat is “effectively off the table”, and he expected China to make make “substantial” soybean purchases and offer a deferral on sweeping rare earth controls. The U.S. wouldn’t change its export controls directed at China, he added.
Bessent later said in an ABC program that he thinks the U.S. has averted having to impose 100% tariffs on China that Trump threatened to put in place if Beijing moved ahead with plans to restrict the exports of rare-earth minerals. “I believe they are going to delay that for a year while they re-examine it,” he said.
Trump is scheduled to meet with Xi on Thursday morning local time,or October 30, in a bilateral meeting that will be part of a multi-country trip to Asia, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed at a briefing on Thursday.
Bessent suggested the Trump administration would further extend a trade truce set to expire November 10. “Coming out of this meeting, I would say yes, but that is at the end of the day President Trump’s decision,” he said when asked if two countries would make further extension.
Bessent on Sunday said in a NBC News interview that a framework is ready for Trump-Xi meeting this week. “I’m also anticipating that we will get some kind of a deferral on the rare earth export controls that the Chinese had discussed,” Bessent said.
“President Trump gave me a great deal of negotiating leverage with the threat of the 100% tariffs, and I believe we’ve reached a very substantial framework that will avoid that and allow us to discuss many other things with the Chinese,” Bessent said.
Bessent also told NBC that Trump would likely visit Xi in China in early 2026, just ahaead of Chinese New Year, wich is February 17, while Xi might visit the U.S. later next year ahead of the Group of 20 summit.
China and the United States reached basic consensuses on properly addressing several important economic and trade issues of respective concerns, and will then go through their respective domestic approval procedures,said Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Li Chenggang on Sunday in Malasia, the state news agency Xinhua reported.
Over the past two days, the economic and trade teams from China and the U.S. engaged in in-depth and candid discussion on issues including the U.S. Section 301 measures on China's maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors, extension of the suspension of reciprocal tariffs, fentanyl-related tariff and counternarcotics cooperation, expanding trade, and export controls, Xinhua cited Li, a top aide to Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, leader of the Chinese delegation.
The two sides conducted constructive discussions on solutions to properly address the concerns of both sides, and reached basic consensuses, Li said. He noted throughout the talks, the economic and trade teams of both countries maintained mutual respect and engaged in dialogue on an equal footing.
The U.S. delegation expressed its position in a tough manner, and the Chinese side remained resolute in safeguarding its interests, Li said. Going forward, the two sides will further enhance communication and exchanges, working actively to foster more stable and sound development of China-U.S. economic and trade relations, said Li.
