Bessent Says EU’s Tariff Threat Just A Negotiating Tactic, US Making Progress With Beijing: ‘We Don’t Want To Decouple From China'

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly said the United States is in a “good place” with China to continue trade negotiations, while downplaying the European Union’s reported plan to impose steep retaliatory tariffs as a “negotiation tactic.”

U.S. equity markets were in the green in early morning trade. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) was up 0.4% and the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA) gained over 0.5%. The Invesco QQQ Series 1 Trust (QQQ), which tracks the Nasdaq-100,  climbed 0.18% on Wednesday morning. 

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In an interview with Bloomberg, Bessent said the U.S. is making progress in its talks with the EU, but noted the bloc faces internal challenges. “The EU has a collective action problem — it’s 27 countries,” he said, adding that no EU member state has yet offered a proposal comparable to Japan’s.

Bessent confirmed that Japan received a 15% tariff rate because it agreed to an “innovative financing mechanism” in its recent trade deal, which included a $550 billion investment pledge in the U.S. He declined to say whether the same rate would apply to future deals. 

When asked about EU reports preparing for 30% tariffs on $100 billion of U.S. goods if talks fail, Bessent said, “I think it’s a negotiating tactic. Any kind of escalation in trade problems will always hit them worse.”

Ahead of meetings in Stockholm next week with Chinese counterparts, Bessent said President Donald Trump is focused on reviving domestic precision manufacturing and correcting what he called a “highly imbalanced” relationship with China.

“We’ll be talking about a purchasing agreement, especially around agriculture,” Bessent said. He added that discussions may also cover China’s purchases of sanctioned Russian and Iranian oil, as well as other security issues.

“We don’t want to decouple from China,” Bessent said. “We just need to de-risk parts of our supply chain.” He confirmed Chinese President Xi Jinping had invited Trump for a visit, but said no date had been confirmed. “Nothing before Labour Day,” he said.

He also dismissed concerns that the resumption of Nvidia’s (NVDA) H20 chips to China was not a part of the trade negotiations.

Read also: Dow Futures Edge Higher After US, Japan Trade Deal – TSLA, GOOG, TXN, T, STLA Among Stocks To Watch

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