U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, left, speaks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, right, during a bilateral meeting between the United States and China in Geneva, Switzerland, Saturday, May 10, 2025.
Keystone/Ada/Marshall Trezzini | via reuters
US Treasury Secretary Scott Besant said on Friday he expected to meet with Chinese Vice Prime Minister He Lifeng in Malaysia next week to try to block an increase in US tariffs on Chinese goods that President Donald Trump has described as unsustainable.
Besant made the announcement during the White House Cabinet meeting and later confirmed the meeting plan after speaking to her on Friday evening. Besant said on Twitter that the two officials “engaged in frank and detailed discussions regarding trade between the United States and China.”
Besant wrote, “We will meet in person next week to continue our discussions.”
China’s state news agency Xinhua reported that he and Besant had “frank, in-depth and constructive discussions on key issues in bilateral economic and trade relations” in a video call, and agreed to hold a new round of trade talks as soon as possible.
The two officials had previously met to hammer out a tariff truce in four European cities over the past six months, reducing tariffs to triple-digit levels for each country. That agreement expires on November 10.
A meeting location in Malaysia would be transferred to a southeast Asian exporter that trades heavily with both China and the US and whose goods are now subject to 19% tariffs imposed by Trump. Malaysia also faces the threat of 100% US tariffs on its semiconductors and derivative electronics equipment under a national security trade review.
Trump earlier Friday blamed Beijing for the latest standoff, a dispute over China’s sweeping new export restrictions on rare-earth minerals and magnets. He has threatened to impose additional 100% tariffs on Chinese imports from November 1 unless Beijing lifts the sanctions.
Asked whether such high tariffs were sustainable and what impact it might have on the U.S. economy, Trump responded: “It’s not sustainable, but that’s what the numbers are.”
“They forced me to do it,” he said in an interview with Fox Business Network that aired Friday.
Trump has also threatened to impose new US export controls that would halt the supply of “any and all critical software”.
The new trade actions were Trump’s response to China dramatically increasing its export controls on rare-earth elements. China dominates the market for elements that are essential for technical manufacturing.
Besant and US Trade Representative Jameson Greer on Wednesday described the sanctions as a threat to global supply chains.
Trump also confirmed that he will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea in two weeks and expressed admiration for the Chinese leader.
“I think we’ll have no problem with China, but we have to make a fair deal. It has to be fair,” Trump said on FBN’s “Mornings with Maria.”
Later, as he was preparing to have lunch at the White House with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss efforts to end his war with Russia, Trump said: “China wants to talk, and we love to talk to China.”
The softening of the tone and confirmation of his intention to meet Xi helped stem Wall Street’s early losses on Friday. Major US stock indexes, which were hurt last week by Trump’s imposition of hefty tariffs on Chinese imports and credit concerns among regional banks, were up in afternoon trading.
WTO urged to reduce trade disputes
The head of the World Trade Organization urged the US and China to reduce trade tensions, warning that a breakup of the world’s two largest economies could reduce global economic output by 7% in the long term.
WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told Reuters in an interview that the global trade body was extremely concerned about the latest escalation in US-China trade tensions and had spoken to officials from both countries to encourage more dialogue.
But even as Trump and Xi prepared to meet, tensions continued.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Besant speaks with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer at a press conference on the sidelines of the IMF/World Bank annual meeting in Washington, DC, US on October 15, 2025.
Ken Cedeno | reuters
Besant took aim at China’s state-run economic practices in a statement to the IMF’s steering committee on Friday, urging the IMF and World Bank to take a tougher stance on China’s external and internal imbalances and industrial policies that US officials say have helped China create excess manufacturing capacity that is flooding the world with cheap goods.
And China’s commerce ministry on Friday accused the US of undermining the rules-based multilateral trading system after the Trump administration takes power in 2025, and vowed to step up its use of dispute settlement actions at the WTO.
It also urged the US to withdraw measures that violate non-discrimination rules and align its industrial and security policies with WTO obligations.
Earlier in the week, Besant had accused one of her top aides of being “incontinent” in recent talks with US trade negotiators. China on Friday said Besant’s remarks “seriously distort the facts.”
