U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besent said Friday he expects to meet next week with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Malaysia to try to prevent an escalation of U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods that President Donald Trump has said are unsustainable.
Bessent made the announcement during a Cabinet meeting at the White House and later confirmed plans for the meeting after a phone call with He on Friday evening. The officials “had frank and detailed discussions on trade between the United States and China,” Besant said on X.
“We will meet in person next week to continue our discussions,” Besant wrote.
He and Besant held “candid, in-depth and constructive discussions on major issues in bilateral economic and trade relations” in a video call, and agreed to a new round of trade talks as soon as possible, Xinhua news agency reported.
The two officials had previously met in four European cities over a period of six months to reach a customs truce that reduced customs duties from triple-digit levels for each country. This agreement expires on November 10.
A meeting in Malaysia would turn the place into a Southeast Asian exporter that trades heavily with both China and the United States and whose goods are now subject to 19% tariffs imposed by Trump. Malaysia also faces a 100% US tariff on semiconductors and derivative electronic devices under a national security trade review.
Earlier Friday, Trump blamed Beijing for the latest impasse, a dispute over China’s sweeping new restrictions on exports of rare earths and magnets. He threatened to impose an additional 100% tariff on Chinese imports starting November 1 unless Beijing removed the restrictions.
Asked whether such high tariffs were sustainable and what that could do to the US economy, Trump replied: “It’s not sustainable, but that’s the number.”
“They forced me to do it,” he said in an interview with Fox Business that aired on Friday.
Trump also threatened to impose new controls on US exports that would cut off supplies of “any and all critical programs.”
The new trade measures were Trump’s response to China dramatically expanding export controls on rare earth elements. China dominates the market for such items, which are essential for manufacturing technology.
Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamison Greer on Wednesday criticized the restrictions as a threat to global supply chains.
Trump also confirmed that he would meet Chinese President Xi Jinping within two weeks in South Korea, and expressed his admiration for the Chinese leader.
“I think we’ll be fine with China, but we’ve got to have a fair deal. It’s got to be fair,” Trump said on FBN’s “Mornings with Maria” show taped Thursday.
Later, as he prepared to have lunch at the White House with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss efforts to end its war with Russia, Trump said: “China wants to talk, and we like to talk with China.”
Softening his tone and confirming his intention to meet with Xi helped stem early losses on Wall Street on Friday. Major US stock indexes, rocked last week by Trump’s surprise reimposition of heavy tariffs on Chinese imports and credit concerns among regional banks, rose in afternoon trading.
The head of the World Trade Organization urged the United States and China to calm trade tensions, warning that a decoupling between the world’s two largest economies could reduce global economic output by 7% in the long term.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization, told Reuters in an interview that the World Trade Organization is deeply concerned about the latest escalation in trade tensions between the United States and China and has spoken with officials from both countries to encourage further dialogue.
But tensions continued to rise, even as Trump and Xi prepared to meet.
Besant took aim at China’s state-led economic practices in a statement to the IMF’s steering committee on Friday, urging the IMF and World Bank to take a tougher stance on China’s external and internal imbalances and industrial policies that US officials say have helped China build excess manufacturing capacity that is flooding the world with cheap goods.
On Friday, China’s Ministry of Commerce accused the United States of undermining the rules-based multilateral trading system since the Trump administration took office in 2025, and pledged to intensify its use of dispute settlement procedures at the World Trade Organization.
It also urged the United States to roll back measures that violate non-discrimination rules and align its industrial and security policies with World Trade Organization commitments.
Earlier this week, Besant accused one of his senior aides of being “disturbed” in recent interactions with US trade negotiators. China said on Friday that Besant’s comments “seriously distort the facts.”