US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet face-to-face on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in South Korea on Thursday. Following two days of intensive negotiations with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told NBC in an interview on October 26 that the Chinese side had agreed to resume soybean purchases from the US and to delay the proposed rare-earth export controls by one year.
When asked whether he was anticipating a 100% tariff on Chinese goods on November 1, Bessent replied, “No, I’m not. And I’m also anticipating that we will get some kind of a deferral on the rare earth export controls that the Chinese had discussed.”
He added that Trump’s threat to impose a 100% tariff had given him “a great deal of negotiating leverage,” but that it is now old news.
