Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent expressed optimism that Beijing will crack down on Chinese companies facilitating the illicit flow of fentanyl into the United States.
Over the weekend, the U.S. held talks with China in Geneva, Switzerland, that centered on lifting President Donald Trump’s steep tariffs on the country and addressing fentanyl trafficking. The U.S. temporarily slashed tariffs placed on China following the talks, while Bessent said Monday that the “upside surprise” for him after the meetings was the “level of Chinese engagement on the fentanyl crisis.”
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“For the first time, the Chinese side understood the magnitude of what is happening in the U.S.,” the secretary added.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid driving overdose deaths across the U.S. Deaths in the country attributed to the drug have surged in the past decade, topping 71,000 a year in 2021, 2022, and 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Trump and Biden administrations have accused Beijing of failing to crack down on Chinese companies that manufacture precursors, or the chemicals used to make the fentanyl, and distributing them to criminal groups in Mexico and elsewhere that produce fentanyl and traffic it into the U.S.
In February, Trump slapped 10% tariffs on China in an effort to incentivize Beijing to take more aggressive action to end the fentanyl crisis. Despite the latest trade agreement announced over the weekend, the U.S.’s 20% tariff on Chinese goods related to the country’s role in the fentanyl trade remains in place, signaling pressure on Beijing to address the opioid crisis.
During an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Monday morning, Bessent said he expects to hold the next round of talks with China on the fentanyl crisis “in the next few weeks.”
“This is a priority for President Trump and indeed the whole administration,” Bessent said.
“I have a personal stake in this,” Bessent continued. “There are two very close friends [who] lost children to this terrible scourge. Hundreds of thousands of Americans die every year. And I think that we saw here in Geneva the Chinese are now serious about assisting the U.S. in stopping the flow of precursor drugs.”
The meetings in Geneva were sparked by China’s outreach to the White House over fentanyl, according to the Wall Street Journal. After Trump pummeled Beijing with up to 145% tariffs, China viewed sending a message that it would take a harsher stance on targeting fentanyl traffickers as an opening to bring the Trump administration to the negotiating table and walk back the tariffs.
Bessent said that during the Geneva talks, China sent a deputy minister for public safety, its “fentanyl expert,” to have a “very long and in-depth sidebar about how our two countries could work together” to address illicit fentanyl trafficking.
During remarks at the White House touting the new trade deal as “a total reset,” Trump said Monday that China has “agreed they’re going to stop that,” referring to its role in fentanyl trafficking.
“They’ll be rewarded by not having to pay … hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs,” he added. “They’re going to curb it, they’re going to stop it — and they weren’t doing that for anybody else.”
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Trump plans to speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping “maybe at the end of the week.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Beijing agreed to “continue seriously discussing the grave impact that Chinese-produced fentanyl is having” on the U.S.
“We’re not looking to hurt China,” Trump said. “China was being hurt very badly. They were closing up factories. They were having a lot of unrest. … They were very happy to be able to do something with us, and the relationship is very, very good.”