President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to reach a deal to avert 100% tariffs on China and likely to meet in person soon, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said following 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” is ready for a meeting between Trump and Xi intended to avoid the harsher tariffs threatened by Trump starting Nov. 1 should Beijing move forward with plans to put restrictions on rare earth minerals, he said.
“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,” he added.
Trump arrived in Malaysia on Sunday for a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, his first stop in a five-day Asia tour that is expected to culminate in a face-to-face with Xi in South Korea on Thursday.
Bessent later told NBC News that Trump would most likely visit Xi in Beijing early next year, just ahead of the Lunar New Year, which is Feb. 17. He said a meeting in Washington would most likely happen ahead of Xi’s planned trip to the U.S. next fall for the Group of 20 summit.
Trump has said that the first issue he plans to raise with Xi at their meeting is fentanyl. The U.S. accuses China of failing to curb the international flow of precursor chemicals for the deadly opioid, which Trump has cited as one of his justifications for imposing tariffs.
China has defended its efforts and says the U.S. fentanyl crisis stems from American demand for the drug.
“I think we will be able to discuss them helping us get this terrible fentanyl crisis under control,” Bessent said. “I think we are going to be able to discuss substantial soybean and [agriculture] purchases for our American farmers.”
China’s top trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, said Sunday that China and the U.S. had reached a preliminary consensus after discussions on a range of issues, including the extension of their 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 Jamieson Greer.
Trump struck a positive tone after the talks.
“I think we’re going to have a deal with China,” he said, hinting at possible meetings with Xi in China and the United States.
“We’ve agreed to meet. We’re going to meet them later in China, and we’re going to meet in the U.S., in either Washington or at Mar-a-Lago,” he added.
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