US and China Reach Trade Framework

“President Trump gave me a great deal of negotiating leverage with the threat of the 100 percent tariffs,” Bessent said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Oct. 26. “I believe we’ve reached a very substantial framework that will avoid that and allow us to discuss many other things with the Chinese.”

“They had threatened to put a global, export licensing regime, and I believe that they are going to delay that for a year while they reexamine it,” Bessent said in a later interview with ABC.

Although Bessent didn’t disclose details, he said he is confident that when the deal with China is made public, “[U.S.] soybean farmers will feel very good about what’s going on, both for this season and the coming seasons, for several years.”

Meanwhile, China’s commerce ministry issued a statement confirming that Vice Premier He Lifeng had reached an initial consensus after engaging in “frank, in-depth, and constructive” conversation with Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

“The U.S. position is tough,” China’s international trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, told reporters in Kuala Lumpur earlier on Oct. 26.