Bessent Floats Longer-Term China Truce After Rare Earths Gambit

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00:00Donald Trump, the U.S. president, was actually asked about the trade war

00:04and whether or not the U.S. was in fact in one.

00:07Here's how he actually framed and phrased that specific answer.

00:11Are we in for a sustained trade war with China?

00:14Well, you're in one now.

00:16Look, we have 100% tariff.

00:19If we didn't have tariffs, we would be exposed as being a nothing.

00:25We would have no defense.

00:26Now, President Trump spoke after Treasury Secretary Scott Besant floated a longer pause

00:34on high U.S. levies targeting China to resolve a conflict over critical minerals.

00:39Right now, we are currently in a 90-day roll on the tariffs.

00:46So is it possible that we could go to a longer roll in return for a delay?

00:52Perhaps. But all that's going to be negotiated in the coming weeks.

00:59Now, for The View from Beijing, here's a quick glance at today's edition of the People's Daily.

01:06An article on Xi Jinping's economic thought strikes an assertive tone on trade tensions with the United States.

01:12It frames the tariff spat as among the, quote, tough battles and protracted wars China must endure to make the economy stronger.

01:21It says China will fight to the end and, quote, Xi's call for party members to, quote, enhance the sense of crisis,

01:28carry forward the spirit of struggle and improve the ability to fight.

01:33Yeah, looks like we are. Both sides are geared up for something a bit longer than maybe most had expected this time last week.

01:41Derek Waldbank is with us, our Bloomberg senior editor, joining us to help us understand, really, the setup, Derek,

01:48as we go into, well, hopefully the meeting still in two weeks' time, Derek.

01:52So, I mean, stakes are obviously quite high, but both sides seem to be digging in more than expected here.

02:00Yeah, that's exactly right, David. I would read this in a couple of different ways.

02:05I don't read this as Donald Trump necessarily declaring that there is a trade war as like a fresh new declaration.

02:13What I do read this as is Donald Trump sort of surveying the landscape of where we are

02:20and noting that there are, you know, trade conflicts between the United States and China.

02:25It's more of an observation than a declaration, if that makes sense.

02:31But certainly, look, you're exactly right.

02:34The U.S. and China have been ratcheting up trade tensions incrementally in the lead up to this widely expected Trump-Xi meeting

02:43that could happen within weeks on the sidelines of the APEC conference in South Korea.

02:49You know, you have seen China not be importing U.S. soybeans.

02:54Remember, we talked the other day about the idea that that is not just a commodity,

02:59but that's also a shot at Donald Trump's political supporters.

03:04Then you're talking about Trump having his own, you know, retaliation.

03:09And looming over this is a threat of a hundred percentage point increase in U.S. tariffs on all imported Chinese goods.

03:16Hey, Derek, you mentioned APEC.

03:19There's another gathering, obviously, in D.C., IMF, World Bank, and G7 finance ministers will be there.

03:24They're mulling how strongly worded statement, if at all,

03:28essentially their response to China's actions to curb rare earth mineral exports.

03:34What do you think will come of that?

03:36Well, Stephen, yeah, I'm waiting to see exactly what they say here,

03:40if this is going to be strong words or if there's going to be actions attached to them.

03:45I mean, look, you know, the idea of Beijing effectively controlling supply lines for critical technologies

03:51is something that the G7 officials are certainly concerned about.

03:57We have heard that concern from a number of them.

04:00But what reaction they're going to take is a little bit difficult.

04:04I mean, you're talking about a lot of economies independently.

04:07We've already seen the European Union, you know, talk about some, you know, tougher stances towards China

04:15in terms of some of this technology.

04:18But we've also seen a lot of tough rhetoric fail to get backed up by actual policies

04:24that are especially that are coordinated across economies that adds in a range of difficulty.

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