China and the United States will hold a new round of trade negotiations next week

The Secretary of the Treasury USA, Scott Bessent, announced this Friday that he will meet next week with the vice prime minister of China, He Lifengafter calling each other to talk about the economic relations between both countries in full escalation of trade tensions.

“This afternoon, Vice Premier He Lifeng and I shared frank and detailed discussions on trade between United States and China. We will meet in person next week to continue our discussions,” Bessent posted on X.

Although the message does not specify the specific date or where the meeting between the delegations of the two countries will take place, the Secretary of the Treasury had already announced that next week there will be a meeting in Malaysia to prepare the next summit between the president of United States, Donald Trumpand its Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinpingscheduled for the end of October in South Korea.

Friday’s call was the first direct contact between Washington and Beijing since China announced restrictions on its rare earthsomething that the United States considered an “escalation” in its trade war.

In a statement published on its website, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce also echoed the video call between Bessent y Hehead of the Asian country’s negotiating team, also pointing to the participation of the US Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer.

“Both parties maintained frank, deep and constructive exchanges on important issues of bilateral economic and trade ties,” said Commerce, highlighting the talks on how to implement the agreements reached between Trump and Xi in your telephone contacts.

Beijing also indicates that both powers “agreed to hold a new round of negotiations (…) as soon as possible”, but neither does it specify the date or place for that meeting.

Trump announced last week that as of November 1 it would “massively” increase the taxes that already weigh on China, in retaliation for what it considers “hostile” behavior by Beijing after the announcement of controls on the export of rare earths and licensing requirements for any product containing parts of these materials.

This could raise levies on Chinese imports to 157%. This retaliation marks the greater disagreement with Beijing since both powers agreed to a tariff truce to negotiate a reduction in tariffs, which Washington raised to 145% during the trade war promoted by the US president after his return to the White House