Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump agreed to extend a trade truce brokered in Busan, South Korea last fall for a period of three months before their official bilateral talks began on Thursday.
Xi, who traveled to Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, was greeted by Trump at Joint Base Andrews, arriving to military fanfare and the unfurling of a red carpet. By the evening, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had taken to Fox News to make the announcement that the two nations would push out the deadline on the Busan Agreement, set to expire on Nov. 10, to Jan. 10, 2027.
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Bessent told the outlet that extended talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in New York on Sunday led to the arrangement. U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer hinted on Monday that the agreement could be pushed out for a short period of three-to-six months while talks continue.
“We still had some unfinished business,” Bessent said Wednesday. “We met today to see if we could do a bigger deal as opposed to just a series of smaller things.”
While the two sides presumably work toward fleshing out a more durable treaty, Bessent said the nations would continue “the economic détente” that has persisted for 11 months “to give us more time to see what we can do on the economic front.”
Bessent said he was bullish about the prospect of reaching lasting consensus with China in part because of the amount of face time Trump and Xi will get this year. This week represents their second in-person meeting—Trump visited Beijing in May—and he is likely to return to Shenzen, China for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting in mid-November. Xi will return to the U.S. in December for the Group of Twenty (G20) Summit in Miami.
Bessent also confirmed that the “30 by 30” framework coined by Greer—wherein both sides would slash duties on $30 billion worth of non-critical imports—was a go, and he said that there would “probably” be announcements forthcoming regarding China’s agricultural purchases.
However, with a packed agenda for the meeting of presidents—the future of AI and potential safeguards, along with the war in Iran are expected to lead the agenda on Thursday—there may be little time left over to make true headway on trade this visit.
Trump greeted Xi for a ceremony welcoming him to the White House on Thursday and both leaders made introductory remarks to Chinese and American officials as well as the press. Trump alluded to the “truly great friendship” between the global superpowers, saying that he and Xi would “continue working together to forge a better future for both of our nations.”
“Our teams have been working to create a more balanced trade relationship, including the new market access for American farmers and ranchers,” Trump said.
Xi agreed that “achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can go hand in hand.” He said the U.S. and China have “deeply intertwined” interests and that they must avoid falling into the “Thucydides trap,” wherein a rising power threatens to dethrone an established power, and that tension pushes them toward war.
“It should be a race of catching up with one another, not a wrestle in which one either wins or loses,” the Chinese leader added.
