The Trump administration’s trade war rhetoric towards the People’s Republic of China appears to be softening further with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent telling a group of economists that Beijing has a chance to strike a significant trade accord with Washington as both countries seek to reorient their economies.
Speaking at the Institute of International Finance on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Bessent said he hopes Chinese leaders will realize they can work with the Trump administration to find mutual benefits if Beijing is honestly seeking to boost domestic consumption and move away from a reliance on exports for economic growth.
“There is an opportunity for a big deal here that the US is looking to rebalance to more manufacturing,” he said Wednesday.
“If China is serious on less dependence on export led manufacturing growth and a rebalancing toward a domestic economy … if they want to rebalance, let’s do it together.”
But Bessent did not spare any criticism of China or the major international institutions that were meeting in Washington this week. He said the International Monetary Fund must be more aggressive in “calling out” countries such as China, that he said have “pursued globally distorted policies and opaque currency practices for many decades.”
He similarly criticized the World Bank for the longstanding practice of treating Beijing as a developing country in line with some of the world’s poorest nations even though China’s economy is larger than any except America’s.
“Treating China, the second largest country in the world, as a developing country, is absurd,” he said while calling the country’s economic rise “rapid and impressive,” even if it has come at the expense of other nations in his view.
Bessent’s remarks in Washington came as President Donald Trump has told reporters that he would not take a hard line against China in any upcoming trade negotiations and conceded that the massive 154 percent import tax he is forcing Americans to pay on all Chinese imported products would have to come down.
Speaking in the Oval Office after a brief swearing-in ceremony for Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins Tuesday, Trump said talks with China were “doing fine” because “everybody wants to have involvement” in American markets.
He also claimed that both he and Chinese representatives would be “very nice” in any upcoming talks but maintained that Beijing would ultimately be forced to come to some sort of agreement to bring down the massive tariffs he has unilaterally imposed as part of his unprovoked trade war with China — and the rest of the world.
Pressed on whether he’d ultimately drop the tariffs he’s imposed on Chinese imports, Trump replied: “It’ll come down substantially. But it won’t be zero.”
And in an impromptu question-and-answer session with members of the White House press corps less than an hour after Bessent had finished speaking, the president said any eventual deal with China was “going to be fair.”
“Everybody wants to be a part of what we’re doing. They know that they can’t get away with it any longer, but they’re still going to do fine, and we’re going to have a country that you can be proud of,” he said.
Bessent did not echo Trump’s promise to bring down the tariffs on Chinese goods, and he later told reporters that any lowering of tariffs would not be done unilaterally by the United States. But he did praise Trump’s use of the levies for having brought many nations to the negotiating table in an effort to avoid having their imports subject to crushing taxes.
“In response to President Trump’s tariff announcements, more than 100 countries have approached us wanting to help rebalance global trade. These countries have responded openly and positively to the President’s actions to create a more balanced international system,” he said.
The Treasury Secretary later added that U.S. officials are currently “engaged in meaningful discussions” over possible trade agreements and said the administration “look[s] forward to talking with others.”