US Treasury Secretary says US and China likely to avoid 100% new tariffs

President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to reach an agreement to avoid new 100% US tariffs on Chinese goods and are likely to meet in person soon, Treasury Secretary Scott Besent said following talks with Beijing’s chief trade negotiator.

China is ready to reach an agreement “after two days of negotiations,” Picent told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in an interview Sunday.

He said a “framework” was in place for this week’s meeting between Trump and Xi aimed at avoiding the tougher tariffs that Trump has threatened from November 1 if Beijing goes ahead with plans to place restrictions on rare earth metals.

“I also expect that we will get some sort of postponement on the rare earth export controls that the Chinese have discussed,” Besant said.

China has a near monopoly on the production and processing of rare earth minerals, which form critical components of electronic devices and defense technologies, and has alarmed the Trump administration with what it sees as threats to disrupt their supplies.

“President Trump has given me a lot of leverage in negotiating the threat of 100% tariffs, and I think we’ve come up with a very substantive framework that will avoid that and allow us to discuss many other things with the Chinese,” Besant said.

Trump arrived in Malaysia on Sunday to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit, his first stop on a five-day Asian tour expected to culminate in a face-to-face meeting with Xi in South Korea on Thursday.

Besant later told NBC News that Trump would likely visit Xi in Beijing early next year, before the Lunar New Year, which falls on February 17. He said a meeting in Washington would likely occur before Xi’s scheduled trip to the United States next fall to attend the G20 summit.

Trump said the first issue he plans to raise with Xi during their meeting in South Korea is fentanyl. The United States accuses China of failing to limit the international flow of precursor chemicals used to manufacture deadly opioids, which Trump cited as one of his justifications for imposing the tariffs.

China defended its efforts and said that the American fentanyl crisis stems from American demand for the drug.

“I think we will be able to discuss it to help us get this terrible fentanyl crisis under control,” Besant said. “I think we will be able to discuss large amounts of soybeans and… [agriculture] Purchases for our American farmers.

China’s chief trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, said Sunday that China and the United States had reached a preliminary consensus after discussions on a range of issues, including extending the fentanyl trade truce and export controls.

Li and Chinese Vice Premier He Feng held talks in Malaysia over the weekend with a US trade delegation including Besant and US Trade Representative Jamison Greer.

Trump spoke in a positive tone after the talks.

“I think we will reach an agreement with China,” he said, hinting at possible meetings with Xi in China and the United States.

He added: “We agreed to meet. We will meet them later in China, and we will meet in the United States, either in Washington or at Mar-a-Lago.”