Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that he has reached a “substantial framework” in the trade talks between the United States and China.
Partial transcript as follows:
MARTHA RADDATZ: Mr. Secretary, we know you have been meeting with the Chinese vice premier. President Trump will have a meeting with President XI later this week. We have read this morning that you said there is a very successful framework in place now, tell us about that, please.
BESSENT: Thank you, Martha. Good to be with you. So this was the fifth meeting that I’ve had with my Chinese counterpart, the vice premier, He Lifeng and we covered a wide range of issues. And I think we’ve reached a substantial framework for the two leaders who will meet in Korea next Thursday. So, you know, on the, on the table the president had given me maximum leverage when he threatened 100% tariffs if the Chinese imposed their rare earth global export controls. So I think we have averted that, so that the tariffs will be averted. And we have a regular meeting — regular quarterly meeting, with the Chinese. It was scheduled for November 10th, or before November 10th. I don’t think we will have to have that. So, we have been rolling the tariffs quarterly, so we agreed on that. We also agreed on substantial agriculture purchases for U.S. farmers. We agreed that the Chinese would begin to help us, with the precursor chemicals for this terrible fentanyl epidemic that’s ravaging our country. So I would say that it was a very good meeting overall.
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