China is ready to make a trade deal with the U.S., Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says. U.S. and Chinese officials have “created a framework” for President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to confirm a deal this week, he told NBC News.
Trump will meet with Xi in South Korea on Thursday and, senior U.S. officials say, the meeting will focus on securing a trade deal.
The “framework” Bessent referenced is one initial step in the right direction, according to the editor of The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom.
With Trump back in the White House, China “can no longer do business as usual,” says Anthony Kim, who also serves as a research fellow at The Heritage Foundation.
Big Issues for Trump, Xi
China and the U.S. have a long list of issues to negotiate through, Kim says, including rare-earth minerals, the purchase of U.S. agricultural goods, and the role China plays in manufacturing the precursor chemicals for fentanyl.
“So, in my view, the US-China ‘framework deal’ is only an initial, pragmatic step toward broader, more necessary talks,” he said, adding that the goal of the Trump administration has been to get China to the negotiating table.
The “framework,” according to Bessent, will allow the U.S. and China an opportunity to discuss Beijing helping the U.S. “get this terrible fentanyl crisis under control.”
Many of the precursor chemicals used to create fentanyl in South and Central America flow out of China. The U.S. has long been calling on China to do more to stop the sale of the chemicals.
Additionally, Bessent said he think negotiations will include “substantial soybean and agriculture purchases for our American farmers. I think we are going to be able to discuss more balanced trade, and I’m not going to get ahead of the two leaders, but I think that they will also be discussing President Trump’s global peace plan that he’s been so successful at both here in Asia, the Middle East, and now he’s looking to Ukraine, Russia.”
Trump has threatened to impose 100% tariffs on China come Nov. 1, but Bessent says he no longer anticipates such tariffs going into effect.
The test will come following the meeting between the two leaders as the U.S. waits to see whether China “will implement pledges they will make,” Kim said.
Rare-Earth Minerals
China has threatened to implement very restrictive rare-earth mineral export controls. China has the world’s largest control of rare-earth minerals and produces about 70% of the world’s rare earths. These minerals are used in everything from smartphones to solar panels, so restricting exports of the materials stands to have significant economic ripple effects.
China announced some rare-earth export restrictions earlier this year, but formalized further restrictions this month.
“Communist China’s rare-earth export ban has loaded a lethal weapon and pointed it at American companies and workers,” Bryan Burack, a Heritage Foundation senior policy adviser for China and the Indo-Pacific, told The Daily Signal.
“The administration’s task is to make China holster that weapon temporarily, while the U.S. works to dismantle it permanently by reindustrializing our country and building secure supply chains for the free world,” Burack continued. “Our negotiators should continue seeking deals that move toward that goal, while avoiding concessions that perpetuate unhealthy dependence on China.”
Following the meeting between Trump and Xi, Bessent says, he is “anticipating that we will get some kind of a deferral on the rare-earth export controls that the Chinese had discussed.”
