Catenaa, Tuesday, September 16, 2025- US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that he is confident a trade deal with China is near, as the two nations continue discussions on Spain.
With reciprocal tariffs set to take effect in November, Bessent told reporters he expects further talks to happen before then.
“Each one of those talks has become more and more productive. I think the Chinese now sense that a trade deal is possible,” Bessent told CNBC.
Initially, China would have faced tariffs of up to 145%, but these were suspended as talks continued. An initial pause on reciprocal tariffs was to expire on August 12, but Trump extended the suspension to November 10.
Bessent said he has been told by US trading partners that “Chinese goods are flooding their markets, and they don’t know what to do about it. They’re slightly apoplectic that these goods are coming in.”
The US had a nearly $300 billion trade deficit with China in 2024. That’s on pace to decline significantly in 2025 and was at $128 billion through July.
Bessent reiterated that he also expects a finalized TikTok deal to be announced after President Trump and Xi Jinping talk on Friday.
The talks in Spain are set to continue through Wednesday.
“We were able to reach a series of agreements, mostly for things we will not be doing in the future that have no effect on our national security,” Bessent told CNBC.
TikTok is set to go offline on September 17 unless its parent company, ByteDance, divests itself of majority ownership of the social media app or the deadline is extended again by Trump.
Oracle is seen as the frontrunner in any deal involving American stewardship of the app.
