Trade standoff with China deepens as Bessent insists the U.S. will ‘neither be commanded nor controlled’


U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Wednesday that China’s recent restrictions on rare earth exports are a “power grab of the global supply chain.”

Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spoke to reporters at the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C., where Bessent said Beijing’s actions amounted to a provocation.

The comments were the latest sign that the U.S.-China trade relationship continues to deteriorate after Beijing’s surprise announcement Thursday of new limits on rare earth minerals and related technologies.

In response, President Donald Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs on China, as well as export controls on “all critical software.”

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng before the first meeting of the China-US economic and trade consultation mechanism in London on June 9.Li Ying/Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images archive

The only way China can avoid those new tariffs, Greer told NBC News, is to eliminate the proposed export controls.

Both Bessent and Greer were cautiously optimistic that Beijing would back down and return to the negotiating table.

“Our expectation is that they will not implement [the controls] and that we will be able to get back to where we were a week ago,” Greer said, “where we had the tariff levels that we agreed to and we have the flow of rare earth magnets that we agreed to.”

Meanwhile, Bessent said Washington was consulting with its allied trading partners on a unified response to the restrictions. “This is China against the world,” he said. “We and our allies will not be commanded or controlled.”

Rare earth minerals are essential for the manufacture of a wide range of products such as batteries, electric vehicles, household items, televisions, smartphones and solar panels.

After three rounds of what officials called successful trade talks, China has yet to officially approve the sale of TikTok in the U.S. and has not purchased soybeans from American farmers since May.

However, Greer and Bessent said the current 90-day tariff pause in place with China (renewed at least three times so far) could resume again for a longer interval if China lifts restrictions on rare earths.



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