Trump is on a five-day Asian tour that is expected to include a bilateral meeting with the Chinese leader in South Korea.
Trade talks between the U.S. and China are setting the foundations for a “very productive meeting” between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week, American officials said on Sunday.
Beijing and Washington are seeking to calm a trade war after Trump threatened new tariffs on Chinese goods in retaliation for China’s expanding export controls on rare earth magnets and minerals.
“I believe that we have the framework for the two leaders to have a very productive meeting for both sides,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
His comments echoed remarks by U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer earlier in the day. After meeting his Chinese counterparts in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Greer told reporters that negotiators are “getting to a spot where the leaders will have a very productive meeting.”
Trump expressed confidence in the ability of the U.S. and Chinese negotiators to fashion an agreement that stops the cycle of tit-for-tat tariffs and export-control reprisals that have characterized U.S.-China trade relations since April.
“I think we’re going to have a good deal with China. I think if we make a deal, it’s going to be great for China, great for us,” Trump told reporters in Malaysia on Sunday.
On his first visit to Asia during his second term, Trump landed in Malaysia Sunday morning to attend the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which groups together Southeastern Asian countries. This is his first stop in a five-day Asian tour that is expected to include to a bilateral meeting with Xi in South Korea.
Bessent said American and Chinese officials reached a “very successful” framework in talks this weekend. The two sides discussed agricultural purchases, TikTok, fentanyl, trade, rare earths and the overall bilateral relationship, he said.
The U.S. Treasury chief described the talks as “constructive, far-reaching and in-depth, and giving us the ability to move forward to set the stage for the leaders meeting in a very positive framework,” according to Bloomberg.
“We discussed a wide variety of issues, from the rare earth, from the rare earth magnets to trade, to substantial purchases of American agricultural products, to the Chinese helping us in this fentanyl crisis that we have in the U.S., Bessent said later Sunday in an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation” program. “I believe that the Chinese will be making substantial purchases again” of American soybeans, he added.
Beijing described the two days of talks by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and chief international trade negotiator Li Chenggang with Bessent and Greer as “candid, in-depth and constructive,” according to a Chinese Commerce Ministry statement on Sunday.
The talks focused on issues including the Trump administration’s imposition earlier this month of new port fees targeting Chinese cargo ships, an extension of the Nov. 10 deadline suspending a return to triple-digit reciprocal tariffs, export controls and Washington’s fentanyl tariffs imposed in February, the statement said.
“The current turbulences and twists and turns are the ones that we do not wish to see,” Li told reporters, adding that a stable China-U.S. trade and economic relationship is good for both countries and the rest of the world, Bloomberg reported.
The Commerce Ministry readout indicated that the two days of talks created a foundation for a successful meeting between Trump and Xi later this week in South Korea.
“They reached a basic consensus on arrangements to address their respective concerns,” the statement said. “Both sides agreed to further refine specific details and complete their respective domestic approval procedures.”
Phelim Kine and Sophia Cai contributed reporting.