US says trade row with China could ease after Trump-Xi talks

AFP | Washington

Email : editor@newsofbahrain.com

A logjam in the trade talks between the United States and China could be broken once Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping speak, US officials said yesterday -- a conversation they said could happen soon.

Trump on Friday accused Beijing of violating a deal reached last month in Geneva to temporarily lower staggeringly high tariffs the world's two biggest economies had imposed on each other, in a pause to last 90 days.

China's slow-walking on export license approvals for rare earths and other elements needed to make cars and chips have fueled US frustration, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday -- a concern since confirmed by US officials.

But US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent seemed to take the pressure down a notch on Sunday, telling CBS's "Face the Nation" that the gaps could soon be bridged.

"I'm confident that when President Trump and Party Chairman Xi have a call that this will be ironed out," Bessent said, however noting that China was "withholding some of the products that they agreed to release during our agreement."

When asked if rare earths were one of those products, Bessent said, "Yes."

"Maybe it's a glitch in the Chinese system. Maybe it's intentional. We'll see after the president speaks with" Xi, he said. On when a Trump-Xi call could take place, Bessent said:

"I believe we will see something very soon."

Kevin Hassett, director of the White House's National Economic Council told ABC that the call could happen "this week" but that he had no confirmation of a scheduled time.

Since Trump returned to the presidency, he has slapped sweeping tariffs on most US trading partners, with especially high rates on Chinese imports.

New tit-for-tat levies on both sides reached three digits before the de-escalation this month, where Washington agreed to temporarily reduce additional tariffs on Chinese imports from 145 percent to 30 percent.

China, meanwhile, lowered its added duties from 125% to 10%.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told "Fox News Sunday" that China was "slow-rolling the deal," adding: "We are taking certain actions to show them what it feels like on the other side of that equation."