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US Treasury Secretary Scott Besant said on Friday he expected to meet with Chinese Vice Prime Minister He Lifeng in Malaysia next week to try to stop the president from increasing US tariffs on Chinese goods. donald trump What was said was not sustainable.
Shri Besant announced this during a program white House The meeting plan was confirmed following a Cabinet meeting and a call with Mr Hay later on Friday evening. Mr. Besant said at the X that the two officials “engaged in frank and detailed discussions regarding trade between the United States and China”,
“We will meet in person next week to continue our discussions,” Mr Besant wrote.
Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported that Mr He and Mr Besant had “candid, in-depth and constructive discussions on key issues in bilateral economic and trade relations” in a video call, and agreed to hold a new round of trade talks as soon as possible.
The two officials had previously met to hammer out a tariff truce in four European cities over the past six months, reducing tariffs to triple-digit levels for each country. That agreement expires on November 10.
The venue of a meeting in Malaysia will be shifted to the south-east Asian exporter that trades heavily with both China and the US and whose goods are now subject to 19 per cent tariffs imposed by Mr Trump. Malaysia also faces the threat of 100 percent US tariffs on its semiconductor and derivative electronics equipment under a national security trade review.
Mr Trump earlier on Friday had blamed Beijing for the latest standoff, a dispute over China’s sweeping new export restrictions on rare-earth minerals and magnets. He has threatened to impose additional 100 percent tariffs on Chinese imports from November 1 unless Beijing lifts the sanctions.
Asked whether such high tariffs were sustainable and what impact it might have on the US economy, Mr Trump replied: “It’s not sustainable, but that’s what the numbers are.”
“They forced me to do it,” he said in an interview with Fox Business Network that aired Friday.
Mr Trump has also threatened to impose new US export controls that would halt the supply of “any and all critical software”.
The new trade actions were Mr Trump’s response to China dramatically increasing its export controls on rare-earth elements. China dominates the market for elements that are essential for technical manufacturing.
Mr Besant and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Wednesday described the sanctions as a threat to global supply chains.
Mr Trump also confirmed that he will meet the Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea in two weeks and expressed admiration for the Chinese leader.
“I think we’ll have no problem with China, but we have to make a fair deal. It has to be fair,” Mr. Trump said on FBN’s “Mornings with Maria.”
Later, as he was preparing to have lunch at the White House with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss efforts to end his war with Russia, Mr Trump said: “China wants to talk, and we love to talk to China.”
The softening of the tone and his confirmation of his intention to meet Mr Xi helped stem Wall Street’s early losses on Friday. Major US stock indexes, which were hurt last week by Mr Trump’s imposition of hefty tariffs on Chinese imports and credit concerns among regional banks, were up in afternoon trading.
WTO urged to reduce trade disputes
The WTO chief urged the US and China to reduce trade tensions and warned that the separation of the world’s two largest economies could reduce global economic output by seven per cent in the long term.
WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told Reuters in an interview that the global trade body was extremely concerned about the latest escalation in US-China trade tensions and had spoken to officials from both countries to encourage more dialogue.
But tensions continued even as Mr Trump and Mr Xi prepared to meet.
Mr Besant took aim at China’s state-run economic practices in a statement to the IMF’s steering committee on Friday, urging the IMF and the World Bank to take a tougher stance on China’s external and internal imbalances and industrial policies that US officials say have helped China create excess manufacturing capacity that is flooding the world with cheap goods.
And China’s commerce ministry on Friday accused Washington of undermining the rules-based multilateral trading system after the Trump administration takes power in 2025, and vowed to step up its use of dispute settlement actions at the WTO.
It also urged the US to withdraw measures that violate non-discrimination rules and align its industrial and security policies with WTO obligations.
Mr Besant had earlier in the week accused one of Mr. Being “unconnected” to recent conversations With US trade negotiators. China on Friday said Mr Besant’s comments “seriously distort the facts”.