US trade team will meet Chinese officials in two or three months, Bessent says

[WASHINGTON] US trade officials will meet again with their Chinese counterparts within the next two or three months to discuss the future of the economic relationship between the two countries, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday.

The comments come a day after the trading partners extended a tariff truce for another 90 days, staving off triple-digit duties on each other’s goods.

In an interview on Fox Business Network’s Kudlow, Bessent also said Chinese President Xi Jinping had invited Trump to a meeting, but one had not been scheduled.

“There’s no date,” Bessent said. “The president hasn’t accepted yet.”

Trump told CNBC earlier this month that the US and China were getting very close to a trade agreement and he would meet Xi before the end of the year if a deal was struck.

Bessent also said on Fox Business that the US will need to see “months, if not quarters, if not a year” of progress on fentanyl flows before it considers reducing tariffs on China.

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Washington accuses Beijing of failing to curb the flow of precursor chemicals for fentanyl, a leading cause of US overdose deaths. Beijing has defended its drug control record and accused Washington of using fentanyl to “blackmail” China.

Trump imposed 20 per cent tariffs on Chinese imports over the issue in February, and they have remained in effect despite a fragile trade truce reached by both sides in Geneva in May. An additional 10 per cent base tariff has also been imposed on Chinese imports. REUTERS