WASHINGTON: Three of President Donald Trump’s top aides will face their Chinese counterparts in London on Monday (Jun 9) for talks to resolve a trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies that has kept global markets on edge.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will represent Washington in the talks, said Trump, who announced the talks in a post on his Truth Social platform but provided no more details.
It was not immediately clear who would represent China. The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for more details.
“The meeting should go very well,” Trump wrote.
Trump also said on Friday that Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed to restart the flow of rare earth minerals and magnets to the US.
Asked directly by a reporter aboard Air Force One whether Xi had agreed to do so, Trump replied: “Yes, he did.”
He added: “We’re very far advanced on the China deal.
The scheduling of the meeting comes a day after Trump spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping in a rare leader-to-leader call amid weeks of brewing trade tensions and a battle over critical minerals.
Trump and Xi agreed to visit one another and asked their staffs to hold talks in the meantime.
Both countries are under pressure to relieve tensions, with the global economy under pressure over Chinese control over the rare earth mineral exports of which it is the dominant producer and investors more broadly anxious about Trump’s wider effort to impose tariffs on goods from most US trading partners.
China, meanwhile, has seen its own supply of key US imports like chip-design software and nuclear plant parts curtailed. The countries struck a 90-day deal on May 12 in Geneva to roll back some of the triple-digit, tit-for-tat tariffs they had placed on each other since Trump’s January inauguration.
