US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday touted US “levers” that he said could give the Trump administration an upper hand toward striking a broad trade deal with China.
The US and China are in the final stages of negotiations for a “huge” Boeing (BA) aircraft deal that could end up as a “centerpiece” of a broader trade agreement between the nations.
“We’re not without levers on our side. We have plenty of products that they depend on us for,” Bessent said on Fox Business. He noted aircraft engines and parts, along with certain chemicals and plastics and silicon ingredients.
Bessent’s comments came the day after US Ambassador to China David Perdue said Tuesday that China is finalizing a “huge order” of Boeing aircraft.
The US and China have made progress toward various contours of a broader deal following a Friday call between Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping. Trump said after that call that the countries had reached an agreement to spin off the TikTok app in the US, with the White House later naming Oracle (ORCL) as part of the consortium of investors.
Trump said the two leaders plan to conduct a series of meetings in the coming months, as Yahoo Finance’s Ben Werschkul reported.
In other China trade-related developments, Reuters reported that Chinese buyers have booked at least 10 cargoes of Argentine soybeans, dealing another blow to US farmers who have been shut out of their main market and hit by low prices.
Meanwhile, India has said it wants to increase purchases of oil and gas from the US, according to Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal. The move comes as India and the US have restarted talks toward a trade deal.
In the background, the Supreme Court is reviewing a high-stakes legal challenge to President Trump’s tariffs, setting up a resolution as early as this fall.
The tariffs at stake are the sweeping “reciprocal,” country-specific duties Trump has outlined in various steps this year (which you can see in the graphic above). Those duties range from 10% to 50%. Trump has used a 1977 law known as “IEEPA” — the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — to justify imposing the tariffs.
The appeals court allowed the tariffs to stay in place while the case moves through the legal process.
Read more: What Trump’s tariffs mean for the economy and your wallet
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