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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says additional 100% tariffs on China are "effectively off the table"

By
Kaia Hubbard
Politics Reporter
Kaia Hubbard is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital, based in Washington, D.C.
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Kaia Hubbard

/ CBS News

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that additional 100% tariffs on China are "effectively off the table" after a "very good two-day meeting" with Beijing's top trade negotiator.

"I'm not going to get ahead of the two leaders who will be meeting in Korea on Thursday, but I can tell you we had a very good two days," Bessent said of President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. 

Bessent, who has been leading trade talks with China, appeared Sunday on "Face the Nation with Margaret 91³Ô¹ÏÍø" from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where President Trump began a three-country visit to Asia. Mr. Trump is expected to meet with China's president at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea on Thursday.

China is the United States' third-largest trading partner after Mexico and Canada, and tariffs on Chinese imports currently stand at 30%. Earlier this month, President Trump threatened an additional 100% tariff on Chinese imports by early November in a significant escalation in the U.S.-China trade war. 

Mr. Trump warned that the tariffs would take effect if Beijing couldn't reach a deal with the U.S., citing new Chinese export controls. But after the meetings, Bessent said he expects "the threat of the 100% has gone away, as has the threat of the immediate imposition of the Chinese initiating a worldwide export control regime."

The treasury secretary praised Mr. Trump for giving him and his team an advantage, saying the threat of a 100% additional tariff "did give us a great deal of leverage".

"President Trump's very good at creating leverage for us," Bessent added.

At the trade meetings, Bessent said he and his Chinese counterpart discussed "a wide variety of issues," from rare-earth magnets to purchases of American agricultural products to the Chinese helping combat the fentanyl crisis in the U.S. He also said the TikTok deal announced last month is set to be finalized on Thursday.

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