U.S. and China Extend Trade Truce for Two Months Amid Xi's Washington Visit

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday evening that the U.S. and China have agreed to extend their trade truce, shortly after Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in Washington for two days of meetings.

But the extension is just two months — setting up another deadline for early next year.

Under the initial arrangement, which President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping hammered out last October in Busan, South Korea, both sides rolled back restrictions on critical minerals and high-tech exports that had threatened to cripple global supply chains. They also extended a pause on their triple-digit tariffs. The truce was set to expire Nov. 10.

“That is going to be extended until January 10 to give us more time to see what we can do on the economic front,” Bessent said in an interview on “Special Report” with Bret Baier, adding that both countries are still trying to hash out a potentially larger deal.

“I don’t know whether a bigger deal can be done. I don’t know whether we will just roll the current deal,” Bessent added.

Bessent’s comments came shortly after Xi landed on U.S. soil at Joint Base Andrews, where Trump met him on the tarmac. The pair are set to meet at the White House Thursday followed by a state dinner. The visit is Xi’s first to the U.S. in over a decade.

Bessent and his Chinese counterpart, Vice Premier He Lifeng, met at the World Bank in Washington earlier Wednesday, where the pair talked about expanding the truce, Bessent said. Bessent, He and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer also met in New York on Sunday.

In addition to the extension of the trade stalemate, Bessent teased further announcements from Xi’s visit.

“We’re going to see probably some announcements of maybe financial services, ag purchases,” he said. “There’s quite a bit going on here.”

When the two leaders met in May, China agreed to buy at least $17 billion in U.S. farm products, excluding soybeans, each year through 2028. But Beijing is not on track to meet its prorated target for 2026.

Beijing last year also pledged to buy 12 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans in the last two months of 2025, plus an additional 25 million tons each year from 2026 to 2028. It did not meet its 2025 soybean target.

“There are some deliverables that have not been perfect on the Chinese side, so we also want to see, now that we’ve sat down and told them our expectations, to see if over the coming months they can be a bit more fulsome in enacting the agreement,” Bessent said.

“What we want to ensure is that they’re meeting their obligations,” he continued, adding that Beijing is a “little behind schedule” on its non-soybean ag purchases. “We are encouraging them to pick those up.”

Craig Singleton, a former national security official with deep expertise on U.S.-China relations, pointed out that the short extension is likely a reflection of Washington’s angst over China living up to its commitments.

“Beijing wanted a much longer period of predictability, while Washington has preserved an early opportunity to test Chinese performance and reassess its leverage,” Singleton said. “By January, the administration should know whether China actually delivered on its agricultural commitments.”

“This is less about buying two months of calm than making China earn the next extension,” he added.

Phelim Kine contributed to this report.