US and China fail to reach agreement on trade truce extension

LONDON, September 21. /TASS/. The United States and China failed to reach an agreement on extending their trade truce, with rare earth supplies among the points of contention, the Financial Times (FT) reported, citing US sources following talks between US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in New York on September 20.

According to the article, the disagreements primarily concern the length of the deal’s extension. The United States is pushing for a six-month extension, while Beijing wants the agreement extended for the remainder of Donald Trump’s term as US president.

In addition, an FT source said Washington believes China is fulfilling only about two-thirds of its commitments on rare earth supplies to the United States and its allies.

At the same time, according to the newspaper, Bessent said that both sides want to maintain the stability in trade seen over the past year.

The talks between the two delegations took place ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to the United States. The visit is scheduled for September 23-25 at the invitation of US President Donald Trump.