Treasury Sec says US has reached a ‘substantial framework’ with China to avert tariffs
By Anjali Sharma
WASHINGTON – US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday has said that he believes the US has reached a framework agreement with China to avoid imposing an additional 100 per cent tariff on Chinese imports.
Bessent said on ABC News from Kuala Lumpur that “I think we’ve reached a substantial framework for the two leaders who will meet next Thursday that tariffs will be averted.”
Trump is expected to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea later this week, the White House said.
Chinese International Trade Representative Li Chenggang said the US and China had reached “preliminary consensus” on trade issues during discussions in Malaysia, according to Chinese media.
Bessent did not provide details about the framework but said on NBC News that he anticipates the US would get “some kind of deferral” on rare-earth export controls.
The minerals have been central to trade tensions between the top global economies, media reported.
Bessent said the framework sets up Trump and Xi “to have a very productive meeting,” adding, “I think it will be fantastic for US citizens, for US farmers, and for our country in general.”
He indicated that an escalation in tariffs on China is “effectively off the table” following what he described as “very good” trade talks with his Chinese counterparts.
Trump had threatened an additional 100% tariff on China from November 1 over Beijing’s efforts to impose export controls on critical rare earths, ratcheting up tensions between the US and China.
Bessent told CBS News that tariff threat has “gone away” after two days of talks in Malaysia when asked about the status of those tariffs.
“We had a very good two-day meeting. I would believe that the so it would be an extra 100 per cent from where we are now, and I believe that that is effectively off the table.”
He added, “I would expect that the threat of the 100 per cent has gone away, as has the threat of the immediate imposition of the Chinese initiating a worldwide export control regime.”
US and Chinese trade negotiators reached a “basic consensus” on how to address their “respective concerns,” Chinese state media said on Sunday, following talks between the two sides over the weekend in Kuala Lumpur.
A delegation led by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng met with US officials including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jameson Greer for the talks, which came ahead of a highly anticipated meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump.
Both leaders are expected to meet on the sidelines of the APEC summit in South Korea, though Beijing, unlike Washington, has yet to confirm the meeting.
Bessent said the two sides had “set the stage for the leaders’ meeting” with a “very successful framework for the leaders to discuss”.
“The two sides engaged in candid, in-depth, and constructive exchanges and consultations on major economic and trade issues of mutual concern,” the Chinese state media readout said.
It listed out those issues as including US penalties on China’s maritime logistics and shipbuilding industry, reciprocal tariffs, fentanyl tariffs, agricultural trade, and export controls – a sweeping set of frictions that have set the world’s two largest economies at loggerheads.
“Two sides reached a basic consensus on arrangements to address each other’s concerns. Both sides agreed to further finalise the specific details and fulfil their respective domestic approval processes,” the readout said.
Trade and tech tensions between the world’s two biggest economies have heightened in recent weeks after the US expanded its export blacklist, hit China’s access to American high-tech, while China ramped up its own export controls on rare earth minerals.
