Bessent Says Trump, Xi May Speak ‘Very Soon’ About Trade Agreement
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The remarks come after Bessent said last week that trade talks had been “a bit stalled” between the United States and China since the Geneva May 12 agreement, brokered by Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, to pause and roll back tariffs and retaliatory trade actions taken since April. Greer on May 30 elaborated that the violations Trump spoke of had to do with China’s critical minerals export restrictions that were meant to be rolled back beginning May 14.
“What China is doing is they are holding back products that are essential for the industrial supply chains of India, of Europe,” Bessent said Sunday. “That is not what a reliable partner does.”
Automotive trade associations have written to U.S. officials, warning of an impending rare earth magnet shortage.
“Without reliable access to these elements and magnets, automotive suppliers will be unable to produce critical automotive components, including automatic transmissions, throttle bodies, alternators, various motors, sensors, seat belts, speakers, lights, motors, power steering, and cameras,” the Alliance for Automotive Innovation wrote the Trump administration.
“In severe cases, this could include the need for reduced production volumes or even a shutdown of vehicle assembly lines.”
Bessent and other Trump administration officials have signaled that resolving the tariff violation will require talks at the head-of-state level, expressing confidence that Trump and Xi will have a call but declining to answer whether Cabinet-level officials have anything on the schedule. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said on a Fox News interview Sunday that China had been “slow-rolling” trade talks, and that he believed a call between Trump and Xi would resolve matters.
“I am confident that when President Trump and Party Chairman Xi have a call, that this will be ironed out,” Bessent said.
“The fact that they are withholding some of the products that they agreed to release during our agreement—maybe it’s a glitch in the Chinese system, maybe it’s intentional, we'll see after the president speaks to [Xi].”
Bessent denied there was an intentional escalation with China, referring to the Chinese regime’s allegations that the United States had sought to “vilify” China in recent remarks.
Bessent said what the United States sought was “de-risking” global supply chains, not decoupling from China specifically.
“I think what Secretary Hegseth did was remind everyone [that] during COVID, China was an unreliable partner, and what we are trying to do is to de-risk,” he said, referring to the supply chain disruptions during the pandemic. “As we saw during COVID, whether it was with semiconductors, medicines, other products—we’re in the process of de-risking.”
