‘We need to de-escalate’: US Treasury Secretary Bessent says he’s confident China will want to reach tariff deal
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett also said that he was hopeful for progress with China on trade. He cited “loose discussions” between both nations but said that he personally did not have any talks with Chinese officials. World
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday (May 1) said that he was confident China would want to reach a deal on tariffs. He added that the United States will likely revisit the phase one trade deal with Beijing from President Donald Trump’s first administration.
In an interview with Fox Business Network, Bessant said, “I am confident that the Chinese will want to reach a deal. And as I said, this is going to be a multi-step process. First, we need to de-escalate, and then over time, we will start focusing on a larger trade deal.”
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White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett also said that he was hopeful for progress with China on trade. He cited “loose discussions” between both nations but said that he personally did not have any talks with Chinese officials.
“We’re hopeful for progress. I think that the fact that the tariffs came off last week shows that we’re very close to making the kind of progress we need to move the ball forward,” Hassett said.
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Phase one trade deal
The phase one trade deal, which was signed in January 2020, stated that China would buy an additional $200 bn in US exports over 2020 and 2021. But it was unable to import enough US goods to meet its import levels from 2017.
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The deal included other agreements, including China committing to remove technical barriers to US agricultural exports, protecting the intellectual property rights of US companies and stopping transfers of technology.
On Tuesday (Apr 29), Bessent told Fox News that the administration would “take into account” that China “didn’t adhere to the phase one deal”.
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“I think we’ll have to take into account that they didn’t adhere to the phase one deal and, you know, I note with great interest that the Biden administration liked the tariffs, but they didn’t enforce the purchase agreements,” he said.
