Bessent sees de-escalation in US-China trade tensions, talks to be 'a slog'

Nupur Anand - Reuters - 03:41
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that he believes there will be a de-escalation in U.S.-China trade tensions, but negotiations with Beijing have not yet started and would be a "slog," according to a person who heard his closed-door presentation to investors at a JP Morgan conference.
WASHINGTON, April 22 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that he believes there will be a de-escalation in U.S.-China trade tensions, but negotiations with Beijing have not yet started and would be a "slog," according to a person who heard his closed-door presentation to investors at a JP Morgan conference.
Bessent described the current bilateral trade situation as a two-way embargo, and neither side sees the status quo as sustainable, the person said. Bessent added that the Trump administration's goal was not to decouple the world's two largest economies.

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Instead, Bessent said that he was hoping for a "big, beautiful rebalancing" of China's economy towards more consumption and the U.S. economy towards more manufacturing, but it was unclear whether Beijing was ready to do that, the source said.
Bessent spoke to a private investment conference in Washington ...
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