International trade: American and Chinese officials express their “concerns” before an Asia-Pacific summit

Senior US and Chinese officials held "frank" discussions on Friday and expressed "concerns" about strained trade relations between their countries, ahead of an Asia-Pacific summit in less than two weeks in China where their leaders are due to meet.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer held a telephone call with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and discussed economic and trade commitments made over the past year, both sides said.

US officials stressed "the importance of China fully and immediately implementing its commitments" and highlighted their "concerns regarding China's recent actions", according to a statement released by the US Treasury Department.

For his part, Mr. He expressed "serious concerns over recent restrictive economic and trade measures imposed by the United States," according to an online state media statement released Saturday by China's Ministry of Commerce. The measures mentioned were not specified in this communication but according to this statement, the discussions were “frank, in-depth and constructive”.

For his part, Mr. Bessent “stressed that continued progress depends on concrete results and that the United States would closely examine China's implementation of the agreement,” according to the American press release.

The statement refers to commitments made by China during an October 2025 meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Busan, South Korea, on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

China is hosting this year's APEC leaders' summit, which will be held from November 18 to 19 in Shenzhen (south), where a trilateral meeting could take place between Donald Trump, Xi Jinping, and their Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. The Chinese Foreign Ministry indicated this week that it was in contact with Washington and Moscow regarding this possible meeting.

The October 2025 Busan Agreement between Beijing and Washington, which reflected the easing of tensions between the two superpowers after an escalation in tariffs, required China to buy U.S. soybeans that year and through 2028. China also agreed to suspend new export controls on rare earths and issue licenses for the export of such materials.

The Busan agreement initially ran for a year, but the two sides extended it until January 10, 2027 during Xi's September visit to the White House.

Machine-translated from French