Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will speak by phone on Friday with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng to discuss the ongoing trade negotiations between the United States and China, a senior Trump administration official told CNBC’s Eamon Javers.
Additional details about the call, including the specific time it would take place or the next steps to be discussed, were not immediately clear.
But the scheduled conversation could signal progress in the U.S.-China relationship, which hit a rocky patch this past week after President Donald Trump reacted to Beijing’s new export controls by threatening an additional 100% tariff on Chinese imports.
Trump, asked in a Fox Business interview how that heavy new tariff would impact the economy, said, “It’s not sustainable, but that’s what the number is.”
“It’s probably not, you know, it could stand, but they forced me to do that,” Trump said in the interview, a portion of which aired Friday morning.
Trump added, “I think we’re going to do fine with China.”
He also said he planned to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping “in a couple of weeks” when they are both in South Korea.
Bessent said Wednesday at CNBC’s “Invest in America Forum” that there was a “very good chance” that he would travel to Asia to meet with the Chinese vice premier He before Trump’s trip.
Bessent had praised He as someone he has “great respect for.”
