US trade chief Greer, Treasury’s Bessent heading to Malaysia for talks with Chinese counterparts
US sees a “good landing zone” still exists for more balanced trade with China
[WASHINGTON] US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said he and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will head to Malaysia on Wednesday (Oct 22) to meet with Chinese officials about what he called “incredibly aggressive” and “disproportionate” measures by Beijing to curb exports of rare earth minerals.
Greer told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” programme that there was still a spot on the schedule for President Donald Trump to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, but it would be a mutual decision if the meeting took place on the sidelines of an economic conference in South Korea next week.
The US trade negotiator said China’s measures violated a commitment their officials had made months ago to keep supplying rare earths needed for high technology, but there was still a “good landing zone” for the US and China to trade in a more balanced way.
Trade tensions between the US and China, the world’s two biggest economies, have flared in recent weeks after months of relative calm. Trump imposed additional duties of 100 per cent on China that are due to take effect on Nov 1 after China announced export controls on nearly all rare earths.
Greer and Bessent have since stressed that they don’t want to decouple from China, or escalate the situation, but insist the US needs to rebalance trade with China after decades of very limited access to Chinese markets.
Greer also said there was still a chance to ease tensions.
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“There notionally is a good landing zone for the US and China where we trade in a way that’s more balanced, and we’re trading in non-sensitive goods, and where we have a constructive relationship,” Greer told CNBC.
“The US has always been quite open to the Chinese, and it’s really been driven by Chinese policies that exclude US companies and drive overcapacity and overproduction in China. None of that works for the US,” he said. “We can’t live that way anymore so we need an alternative path.”
Greer said Trump and other US officials would also discuss agricultural issues, including China’s moves to stop purchasing US soybeans and sorghum, which he said was intended to deliberately hurt US farmers.
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“Obviously the president will raise. We all ... raise this with them,” he said, noting that China still has unfulfilled obligations to buy agricultural and manufactured goods under a trade deal signed during Trump’s first term. REUTERS
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