By David Lawder and Elizabeth Howcroft
PARIS, March 16 (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday said the U.S.-China relationship was stable and disputes with China over trade or shipping would not be the cause of any delay in President Donald Trump’s planned visit to Beijing.
Bessent, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer wrapped up two days of talks in Paris that sketched out potential agreements for a highly anticipated summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the start of April.
But Trump on Monday said he was seeking a month delay in the trip because of the U.S. war on Iran, after he called on China and other countries to help ships safely transit the Strait of Hormuz after Iran closed the vital oil shipping lane.
Bessent told reporters after the China talks that any delay would be because of Trump’s need to stay in Washington as commander-in-chief of the U.S. military.
“It would have nothing to do with the Chinese making a commitment to the Straits of Hormuz. It would obviously be in their interest to do so, but a postponement would not be as a result of any ask from the president not being met,” Bessent said.
He said the Paris talks “were constructive, and they show the stability in the relationship.”
Later, in a social media post on X, Bessent said the two countries “are on a good path towards the next meeting” between Trump and Xi.
TRADE TALKS
China’s chief trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, described the talks at the Paris headquarters of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development as “in-depth, candid and constructive consultations,” and said both sides had committed to maintaining the stability of bilateral tariff levels.
Greer said the two sides had agreed on general terms of a “work plan” to tee up agreements for Trump and Xi to consider when they do meet. A potential delay would provide more time to flesh out the proposals.
These included expanding U.S. exports of agricultural and energy goods, as well as a formal mechanism to manage trade with China, which he said might be called the U.S.-China Board of Trade.
This body would identify “what kinds of things should we be importing from China, what kinds of things should we be exporting to China, to really make sure that we can focus on areas of mutual benefit.”
The agreement on broad contours of the mechanism by the two sides, as well as a less-developed “Board of Investment” to sort out investment issues, was first reported by Reuters late on Sunday.
TRADE PROBES
Li said the Chinese had also expressed “solemn concern” about Washington’s new Section 301 unfair trade practices probes that target China and many other trading partners over alleged excess industrial capacity and failures to ban products produced with forced labour.
The investigations could result in new tariffs within months after the U.S. Supreme Court in late February tore down Trump’s broad global tariffs imposed under an emergency law.
“We will closely follow the development of these investigations, and take relevant measures to safeguard China’s legitimate rights and interests at appropriate times,” Li said.
The Paris talks followed several meetings to ease tension last year between He, Bessent, Greer and Li.
But with little time to prepare and Washington’s attention focused on the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, prospects for major trade breakthroughs were limited, in Paris or at the Beijing summit, trade analysts said.
Josh Lipsky, international economics chair at the Atlantic Council in Washington, said Iran was likely to be the centerpiece of a Trump-Xi summit in two weeks, and a month-long delay would lessen that chance.
“I think it’s a signal that both sides are hoping that if you move this to the end of April, you have the meeting they always intended to have, and not an Iran dominated meeting. It also gives them a little more time to build an agenda.”
(Reporting by David Lawder and Elizabeth Howcroft in Paris and Chen Xiuhao in Beijing; Writing by Leigh Thomas and David Lawder; additional reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington; Editing by Diane Craft, Bill Berkrot, Daniel Wallis and Chris Reese)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.