


Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday that he thinks it is likely a trade deal will be inked with China ahead of a looming November tariff deadline.
Bessent said trade talks with China have been gradually improving and are heading in the right direction to reach a deal before President Donald Trump’s tariffs on the Asian nation are set to go into effect in November.
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He also said that he expects more talks with Beijing.
“We’ll be seeing each other again,” Bessent said on CNBC. “Each one of those talks has become more and more productive. I think the Chinese now sense that a trade deal is possible.”
Trump has embarked on the most aggressive tariff rollout in decades, and Bessent is one of the key people not only carrying out that agenda but also working to stymy any of the fallout on Wall Street.
The tariffs, which targeted allies and adversaries alike, were first rolled out on what the Trump administration has dubbed “Liberation Day” in April. China was set to be hit with crippling 145% tariffs, although as talks continued, those were put on hold.
Tariffs on China were first pushed off to August but have since been bumped to early November — a deadline that Bessent is hopeful will allow for a deal to be reached.
The United States is China’s biggest global competitor and is working to shore up its own domestic supply chains for things such as semiconductor chips. The Trump administration has pushed hard to increase domestic manufacturing output.
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Trump also wants to fix trade imbalances with other countries, a cause he has long pushed for.
During the Tuesday interview, Bessent also said U.S. trading partners have told him that “Chinese goods are flooding their markets, and they don’t know what to do about it. They’re slightly apoplectic that these goods are coming in.”