NEW YORK — The U.S. government signaled on the 21st that a summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the 24th may not produce an agreement on the length of the two countries' tariff truce.
Jamieson Greer, the U.S. Trade Representative, said in a Bloomberg TV interview on the 21st that an announcement extending the tariff truce, which expires Nov. 10, was unlikely within the week. Greer added that talks would continue because both sides want an extension.
In a separate Fox News interview the same day, Greer said there would be no giant grand bargain between the United States and China because the two countries' economic and political systems are too different. Instead, he said, the summit would allow the two sides to begin substantive talks on artificial intelligence and to set the operating procedures and target items for a trade committee.
China is pushing for a trade truce longer than six months, according to The New York Times. The United States, by contrast, wants China to increase its rare earth supplies and its purchases of U.S. farm products. The two countries had raised tariffs to 145% on Chinese goods and 125% on U.S. goods after Trump returned to office, before agreeing in May last year to sharply lower those rates.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who coordinated the summit agenda with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in New York the previous day, said in a CNBC interview that the two countries had formally begun talks on AI safety regulation. On the timing of further AI discussions, Bessent said they would probably take place in Shenzhen in about two months, referring to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit that China will host in the city in November. He also said sanctions on Iran had been discussed with China, stressing that Chinese financial authorities, including People's Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng, were deeply involved in the process. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun later voiced clear opposition to the sanctions on Iranian airlines that Bessent described, calling them illegal unilateral sanctions.
