President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to reach a deal to avoid a new 100% U.S. tariff on Chinese goods and are 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 reach a deal “after two days of negotiations.”
A “framework” is ready for a meeting this week between Trump and Xi aimed at avoiding the harsher tariffs threatened by Trump starting Nov. 1 should Beijing move forward with its plans to impose restrictions on rare earth minerals, he said.
“I also anticipate that we will get some kind of deferral on the rare earth export controls that the Chinese had discussed,” Bessent said.
China has a near monopoly on the production and processing of rare earth minerals, which are critical components of electronic devices and defense technologies, and has alarmed the Trump administration with what it sees as threats to disrupt their supply.
“President Trump gave me a lot of negotiating leverage with the threat of 100% tariffs, and I think we have reached a very substantial framework that will avoid that and allow us to discuss many other things with the Chinese,” Bessent said.
Trump arrived in Malaysia on Sunday for an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit, his first stop on a five-day tour of Asia that is expected to culminate with a face-to-face meeting with Xi in South Korea on Thursday.
Bessent later told NBC News that Trump will most likely visit Xi in Beijing early next year, just before the Lunar New Year, which is February 17. He said a meeting in Washington would most likely be held before Xi’s planned trip to the United States next fall for the Group of 20 summit.
Trump has said the first issue he plans to raise with Xi at their meeting in South Korea is fentanyl. The United States accuses China of failing to stem the international flow of chemical precursors to the deadly opioid, which Trump has cited as one of his justifications for imposing tariffs.
China has defended its efforts and says the fentanyl crisis in the United States is due to American demand for the drug.
“I think we’ll be able to talk about how to help us get this terrible fentanyl crisis under control,” Bessent said. “I think we are going to be able to discuss substantial issues about soybeans and [agriculture] purchases for our American farmers.”
China’s top trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, said on Sunday that China and the United States had reached a preliminary consensus after discussions on a number 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 are going to reach a deal with China,” he said, hinting at possible meetings with Xi in China and the United States.
“We have agreed to meet. We will meet them later in China and we will meet in the United States, either in Washington or in Mar-a-Lago,” he added.
Peter Alexander and Peter Guo contributed.
