US President Donald Trump ready to meet with Xi in South Korea, Scott Bessent says Staff WritersReutersThu, 16 October 2025 5:04AMCommentsComments
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent insists the United States does not want to escalate a trade conflict with China, stressing that President Donald Trump is ready to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea later this month.
Bessent told a CNBC event that officials from both countries were in touch daily to set up the meeting, and Washington did not want to decouple from the second-largest economy in the world.
He said it was due to trust between Trump and Xi that the trade conflict between the two countries has not escalated further.
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The two countries appeared poised to return to an all-out trade war late last week after China on Thursday announced a major expansion of its rare earths export controls.
Mr Trump responded on Friday by threatening to raise tariffs on Chinese goods to triple-digit levels, sending financial markets and US-China relations into a tailspin.
Bessent and other officials have sought to get ties back on track in a series of interviews this week.
On Wednesday, Mr Bessent said China had clearly intended to take action “all along,” rejecting a Chinese claim that the moves were a response to US actions.
Bessent told CNBC a lower-level Chinese trade official had threatened to “unleash chaos” if the US went ahead with port fees on Chinese ships in August.
“There was a lower-level trade person who was slightly unhinged here in August … saying that China would unleash chaos on the global system if the US went ahead with our docking fees for Chinese ships,” Mr Bessent said.
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