U.S.-China officials to hold AI, tariff and minerals talks before Washington summit

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Highlights

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng will meet Sunday in New York to discuss AI guardrails, tariffs, and critical minerals before the Trump-Xi summit.
Tariff discussions include possible reductions on non-strategic goods, reinstatement of a 12.5% tariff due to forced labor allegations, and fulfillment of China's $17 billion annual U.S. agricultural purchase and Boeing commitments.
Talks address China's lagging compliance on critical mineral shipments promised under the November 2025 Busan truce, with AI safeguards discussed as Chinese open-weight models gain U.S. market traction.

Summit preparation and negotiating agenda

As reported by CNBC, citing Reuters, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng are set to meet on Sunday at JP Morgan Chase's headquarters in Manhattan, alongside U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, in talks expected to last throughout the day.

The agenda includes the status of the U.S.-China trade truce, Chinese rare-earth magnet and critical mineral shipments, and possible guard rails for AI after reports of security breaches involving AI models. The officials are also working through issues left over from Trump and Xi's meeting in Beijing in May, including efforts to reduce tariffs on non-strategic goods and Chinese commitments to buy an additional $17 billion a year in U.S. agricultural products and more than 200 Boeing aircraft.

The meeting follows a pattern established over the past 16 months, during which Bessent, He and Greer have met in Europe and Asia to prepare possible agreements for the two presidents. Those efforts included the November 2025 truce reached in Busan, South Korea, which capped U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods at about 20% after retaliatory measures on both sides had pushed rates into triple digits.

Trade, AI and supply chain stakes

Washington is also rebuilding some tariff measures under new authorities, including restoring a 12.5% tariff on Chinese goods over forced labor allegations. The administration is finalizing a separate tariff investigation aimed at what it describes as excess industrial capacity in China.

Under the Busan truce, China promised to restore flows of critical minerals to U.S. and global users, but a senior U.S. official says on Friday that Beijing's performance "has not been up to par" and that the issue will be discussed ahead of the Trump-Xi summit. China’s Ministry of Commerce says on Saturday that He is also leading a delegation of Chinese companies to the U.S. for economic and trade consultations before the summit.

The AI discussions are drawing particular attention because the U.S. and China remain the two leading forces in advanced AI development and global adoption. Bessent says on Friday he expects the talks to cover both open- and closed-weight models, as Chinese open-weight systems gain traction with U.S. companies partly because they can be cheaper than tools developed by Anthropic, OpenAI and other U.S. firms.

Our earlier article covered U.S.-China negotiations over a broader trade package ahead of President Xi’s U.S. visit, including the possibility of reducing or removing China’s tariff on American LNG alongside energy and agriculture measures. We noted that the LNG tariff had sharply reduced U.S. shipments to China and that any easing could support U.S. exporters as new capacity comes online. The piece also framed such steps as part of a wider push to stabilize bilateral trade ties before the leaders meet.

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