US, China extend trade truce by two months ahead of Trump-Xi summit

The United States and China have agreed to extend by two months a trade truce that was due to expire on November 10, giving the two sides additional time to pursue a potentially broader trade agreement, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday, September 23.

Bessent spoke to Fox News after holding his second meeting in four days with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, ahead of a summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday.

"We met today to see if we could do a bigger deal as opposed to just a series of smaller things," Bessent said, adding that the two-month extension of the trade truce agreed in Busan, South Korea, in May would give Washington and Beijing "more time to see what we can do on the economic front."

Bessent said earlier that China had raised the possibility of a more expansive trade agreement during 12 hours of talks on Sunday, although he provided no details about its potential scope. Wednesday's meeting lasted about 90 minutes, according to the Treasury Department.

Asked whether a broader agreement could be reached by January 10, Bessent said it was too early to tell. He added that Washington was also pressing Beijing to "be a bit more fulsome" in fulfilling its commitments under the existing arrangement in the coming months.

According to Bessent, China was meeting its commitment to purchase 25 million tons of US soybeans but was falling short of its pledge to buy $17 billion worth of other US agricultural products. US officials also said last week that deliveries of rare earths from China were lagging.

Thursday's summit, the second of as many as four meetings between Trump and Xi planned for this year, could produce announcements on the countries' goal of removing tariffs on $30 billion worth of non-critical goods, as well as agreements involving financial services and agricultural purchases.

"Given that this could be a historic year where the leaders meet up to four times -- this being the second meeting, in Shenzhen and then in Miami -- we're open to the idea of just continuing the Busan arrangement or examining the bigger deal," Bessent told reporters. "We're fine with both, and we're going to do what's best for the American people."

In a post on X, Bessent described the discussions as substantive and said the Treasury Department was focused on securing meaningful commitments to protect American workers, farmers and businesses while advancing US economic and national security interests.

Bessent said he met He at the World Bank headquarters in Washington to resolve some "unfinished business" before the Trump-Xi summit. He said the administration wanted strategic stability based on "reciprocity and fairness."

Bessent, He and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer had met in New York on Sunday to prepare potential agreements on trade and artificial intelligence for the two presidents. Bessent described those talks as successful and said the sides had agreed to establish a communications "hotline" for notifying each other about AI safety incidents.

China's response to the proposed AI hotline remained unclear. State news agency Xinhua reported only that the two sides had discussed artificial intelligence.

Analysts of US-China relations have said expectations for meaningful AI cooperation remain limited because of a lack of mutual trust and neither side's apparent willingness to slow the development of the technology. Trump has said he would not "stifle" AI growth and would seek to preserve US leadership over China in what he has called "super intelligence."

The Busan "economic detente" sharply reduced bilateral tariff rates, which had climbed into triple digits following tit-for-tat retaliation over Trump's tariff increases last year. China also agreed to restore the flow of rare earth magnets and other critical minerals after imposing severe restrictions on their export.

By Tamilla Hasanova