Bessent Signals Fresh US-China Talks For A More ‘Fulsome Agreement’ After 90-Day Tariff Pause

After the U.S. announced a 90-day pause on most tariffs between the U.S. and China, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will reportedly be meeting with Chinese officials again in the coming weeks to continue negotiations between the two countries.

“I would imagine in the next few weeks we will be meeting again to get rolling on a more fulsome agreement,” he told CNBC in an interview.

Bessent added that the exact details of the meeting, such as the specific location, have not been set yet. 

“We are the deficit country. Historically, the deficit country has a better negotiating position,” he explained, adding that the negotiations are meant to counter workarounds by China shipping to the U.S. through other countries.

“Dual circulation cannot mean that China overproduces and that only Chinese goods are consumed in China, and then they export the excess to the rest of the world,” he said.

The Treasury Secretary also stated that while the U.S. does not want a “generalized” decoupling from China, it does want a decoupling for strategic necessities, which it could not obtain during the pandemic, citing the need to protect the steel, pharmaceutical, and semiconductor industries.

During a separate press briefing on Monday morning in Geneva, Bessent said that as negotiations proceed, “the possibility of purchase agreements to pull the bilateral trade deficit into balance” could also arise.

When asked what would happen at the end of 90 days to avoid tariffs from going back up, Bessent indicated there’s a chance to extend the truce further.

Under the current pause on tariffs, both countries have lowered their baseline tariffs to 10%. However, the 20% fentanyl-related tariffs also remain, effectively bringing the levies on Chinese goods to 30%, down from the previous 145%. 

Markets have reacted positively to the slashing of the tariffs between the two countries, with futures linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining over 1,000 points in pre-market trade on Monday.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) was up over 3%, the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), which tracks the Nasdaq 100, was 3.95% higher, and the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA) rose 2.36%.

The ProShares UltraPro QQQ ETF (TQQQ) surged nearly 12%.

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Read also: Dow Futures Jump Over 1,000 Points As US-China Agree To Slash Tariffs For 90 Days