Zollkrieg: USA und China bereiten Trump-Xi-Gipfel vor – Zölle im Fokus

Ahead of the upcoming summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng met in New York on Sunday for preparatory discussions. The talks also included US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. The focus was on potential agreements regarding Artificial Intelligence (AI), tariffs, and critical minerals that will be addressed at the state leaders' meeting scheduled for Thursday in Washington.

Bessent expressed his anticipation for focused, comprehensive, and constructive conversations before the proceedings began. Among the key topics are the expiration of a trade embargo on November 10th in the ongoing trade dispute between the world's two largest economies, the insufficient supply of Chinese rare earth magnets and critical minerals from the US perspective, and potential safety measures for AI models.

The US is open to discussions, according to Bessent, covering both open and closed AI systems. The US continues to lead in technology and is receptive to talks to avoid common risks and decouple the two systems, the Treasury Secretary explained. Analysts expect the summit to yield no breakthrough but rather smaller steps, rather addressing issues that remained unresolved at a meeting of the two state leaders in Beijing in May.

These include efforts by both sides to lower tariffs on non-strategic goods, China's pledge to increase purchases of US agricultural products by $17 billion annually and acquire over 200 Boeing aircraft, and the current negotiations, which follow the pattern of the past 16 months in which representatives of both countries prepared potential agreements.

This includes the agreement reached in Busan, South Korea in November 2025, which limited the US tariffs on Chinese goods to around 20 percent, having initially risen to triple-digit levels due to reciprocal retaliatory measures.