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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested the deadline for a US-China tariff truce slated to end next month is flexible, saying that talks between the world’s largest economies are in a “very good place” ahead of an expected meeting in coming weeks.
“I tell market participants not to worry about Aug. 12,” Bessent said Tuesday on “Bloomberg Surveillance,” referring to the end of a 90-day reprieve that was announced May 12.
The remarks may ease investor concern that commerce between the two nations faces further disruption if tariffs return to their damaging pre-truce levels in less than a month. Bessent’s perceived confidence in stable relations with Beijing also reinforces his role as a counterweight to the China hawks advising Trump.
The Treasury chief, who has taken the leading role in Washington’s negotiations with China, said that he hopes to meet with his counterpart Vice Premier He Lifeng soon, possibly in a third country, either before or after the Chinese leadership hold a meeting early next month.
“We’re still working on it,” he said. “The Chinese leadership has a big conclave at the beginning of August. We’re trying to work out whether that could be in a third country either before or after that conclave.”
Market Rally
The S&P 500 has rallied 26% from an April low to a record high as investors grew more confident that the US will negotiate lower tariff rates with trading partners than those announced April 2.
The domestic economy, meanwhile, remains solid with underlying inflation largely staying in check. A report on June consumer prices, released after the Bessent interview, showed product categories more exposed to tariffs indicate that companies are starting to pass higher import costs on to households.
The dollar remains lower since the initial April announcement, while longer-dated Treasury yields are higher. The greenback has been hit particularly hard, with Bloomberg’s gauge of the currency down more than 8% this year.
Bessent and his fellow US trade negotiators previously met with Chinese officials in Geneva in May, where they agreed to reduce their overall tariffs rates on each other. They held more talks in June in London, where they reached an understanding on easing export controls on semiconductors and so-called rare earths.
Story Continues
The US government has recently assured chip maker Nvidia Corp. that licenses for sales of its advanced H20 GPU to Chinese firms would be granted, the company said in a blog post.
In the Bloomberg TV interview, Bessent confirmed that development and said the granting of such licenses was among the offerings from the Trump administration in its talks with China.
“You might say that that was a negotiating chip that we used in Geneva and in London,” he said. “It was all part of a mosaic. They had things we wanted. We had things they wanted, and we’re in a very good place.”
–With assistance from Annmarie Hordern, Jonathan Ferro, Lisa Abramowicz, David Goodman and Farah Elbahrawy.
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