Washington: US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday indicated that Washington and Beijing have reached a tentative understanding to ease their prolonged, tariff-driven trade conflict. The announcement comes just days before President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to meet in South Korea. 

In an interview with ABC’s This Week, Bessent confirmed that the US threat to impose 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods has been suspended in return for China delaying its planned export restrictions on rare earth materials. “The tariffs will be averted,” Bessent said following his talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Kuala Lumpur. He added that Beijing will “delay that for a year while they reexamine it.”

The secretary said both sides expect Trump and Xi to formally unveil the deal during their upcoming summit. According to Bessent, China has also agreed to make “substantial” purchases from US farmers — a critical political constituency for Trump that has borne the brunt of the trade dispute.

The deal discussions additionally covered the future of the Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok, which has around 170 million users in the United States. Bessent said a “final deal” has been reached under which control of TikTok’s US operations will transfer to American investors aligned with the administration. “All the details are ironed out, and that will be for the two leaders to consummate that transaction on Thursday in Korea,” he said in a separate appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation.

Talks in Kuala Lumpur also addressed Washington’s ongoing concerns over the transnational fentanyl trade. Bessent noted that China has agreed to assist the US in curbing precursor chemical flows linked to the deadly opioid crisis.

With inputs from AFP