The United States and China agreed to identify better tariff terms for $30 billion in goods moving each way, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in prepared remarks published Nov. 11.
Bessent described the effort as reducing economic dependence while maintaining trade ties. The Treasury Department published “Remarks from Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations Gala” with a Nov. 10 date.
The agreement covered non-sensitive goods through a bilateral Board of Trade, Bessent said. The commitment was to identify goods for more favorable treatment, rather than an announcement that the countries had already changed tariffs.
Bessent also said China had previously agreed to import at least 25 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans and 10 million metric tons of U.S. coal over the next two years. He gave no value for those purchases or starting date for that period.
The trade board also established a working group to address barriers to agricultural trade, he said. A separate Board of Investment provides a forum to discuss access for American companies and more predictable conditions for Chinese businesses.
Bessent described the two boards as ways to put President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s commitment to balanced, reciprocal relations into practice. He linked the initiatives to the administration’s goals for American prosperity, economic resilience and national security.
“Our objective is to de-risk, not to decouple,” Bessent said. He argued that the United States must make more of what it consumes, while China must consume more of what it produces.
In his account, the American economy had become too dependent on foreign supplies, while China had grown increasingly dependent on overseas demand. He said cooperation could strengthen both economies while reducing those imbalances.
Bessent also announced a new dialogue with China on superintelligence, artificial intelligence that surpasses human capabilities, at Trump’s direction. He described its purpose as addressing shared risks and preventing misunderstandings between the countries.
The countries expect to exchange practices for evaluating and testing advanced models before release, Bessent said. He also described plans to keep human judgment in control of the technology.
The two governments are establishing a direct channel to alert each other promptly to serious incidents involving their superintelligence models, he said. Bessent acknowledged that U.S. and Chinese interests would not always align and their approaches could differ.
Bessent said he would accompany Trump to Shenzhen the following week for a meeting with Xi, before another encounter in Miami. He described those meetings as following Trump’s May visit to Beijing and Xi’s September visit to Washington.
