U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated on Sunday that U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will soon discuss trade issues, including a dispute over critical minerals.
Trump accused China on Friday of violating an agreement with the U.S. to mutually roll back tariffs and trade restrictions on critical minerals.
“What China is doing is they are holding back products that are essential for the industrial supply chains of India, of Europe. And that is not what a reliable partner does,” Bessent said in an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Bessent expressed confidence that the issue would be resolved when Trump and Xi speak. “I am confident that when President Trump and Party Chairman Xi have a call, that this will be ironed out. But the fact that they are withholding some of the products that they agreed to release during our agreement – maybe it’s a glitch in the Chinese system, maybe it’s intentional. We’ll see after the President speaks with the party chairman.”
Trump said on Friday that he was certain he would speak to Xi. China stated in April that the two leaders had not recently spoken.
Asked if a conversation with Xi was on Trump’s schedule, Bessent said, “I believe we’ll see something very soon.”
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said that while no specific date has been set, there have been discussions about the leaders discussing last month’s Geneva agreement on some tariff disputes.
“President Trump, we expect, is going to have a wonderful conversation about the trade negotiations this week with President Xi. That’s our expectation,” Hassett said.
