US, China seek to wrap Paris talks on managed trade, agriculture deals for Xi-Trump summit

PARIS - Top US and Chinese economic officials were due to conclude talks in Paris on March 16, with potential areas of agreement in agriculture, critical minerals and managed trade that could be taken up by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, sources familiar with the discussions said.

The sources told Reuters that the “remarkably stable” talks led by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng would set in motion possible “deliverables” for Mr Trump’s expected trip to China at the end of March to meet with Mr Xi.

But they added that the leaders would have the final say on the proposals.

Mr Trump, however, told the Financial Times in an interview published on March 15 that he could also delay his summit with Mr Xi later in March as he presses Beijing to help unblock the crucial Strait of Hormuz closed by Iran.

“We may delay,” he said of the trip.

The US and Chinese delegations met for more than six hours on March 15 at the Paris headquarters of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, a club of mostly wealthy democracies that does not count China as a member.

During those discussions, the Chinese side showed openness to potential additional purchases of US agricultural goods including poultry, beef and non-soya bean row crops, one of the sources said, adding that China was still committed to buying 25 million metric tons of American soybeans for each of the next three years under the Trump-Xi October 2025 trade truce.

Spokespersons for the US Treasury and the US Trade Representative’s office declined to characterise the discussions, while Chinese officials left the talks on March 15 without speaking to reporters.

In a statement on March 16, China’s commerce ministry rebuked the United States over a trade investigation into forced labour, urging Washington to “correct its wrongdoings”, and citing representations made to the United States

“Meaningful” progress in Sino‑US economic cooperation could restore confidence to an increasingly fragile global economy, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said in a commentary on March 15.

The Paris talks follow several meetings to ease tensions in 2025 between Mr Bessent, Mr He, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Chinese chief trade negotiator Li Chenggang.

Managed trade mechanism

The two sides discussed the establishment of new formal mechanisms to help manage trade and investment between the world’s two largest economies that may be considered by Mr Trump and Mr Xi in Beijing, the sources said.

Technical talks on the proposed US-China “Board of Trade” and “Board of Investment” were expected on March 16.

One of the sources said that the Board of Trade was the more developed of the two proposals, and would be aimed at finding products and sectors where the US and China could grow trade in a balanced way without compromising each other’s national security or critical supply chains.

The Board of Investment would not set broad investment policies but would address “discrete investment issues” that may arise between the countries, the source said.

Critical minerals, energy

The sources also said US officials discussed the flow of Chinese-produced critical minerals to US companies and raised concerns about the US aerospace industry’s lack of access to yttrium from China, which is used in jet engine turbines, among other applications.

One of the sources said the two sides “found some ways to loosen up” more challenging areas in critical minerals, but did not provide specifics.

Before the talks, Mr Greer had told CNBC on March 13 that the US wanted “to make sure that we continue to get the rare earths we need for our manufacturing base, that they keep buying the kinds of things they should be buying from us, and that the leaders have a chance to get together and make sure that the relationship is going the way we want it to go”.

Mr Greer and Mr Bessent also emphasised in the talks the US desire for China to increase purchases of Boeing jetliners and US coal, oil and natural gas, which could be further discussed on March 16, the sources said.

But with little time to prepare and Washington’s attention focused on the US-Israeli war on Iran, prospects for such major trade breakthroughs were limited, in Paris or at the Beijing summit, trade analysts said.

“Given that the leaders may meet up to four times this year, these deliverables maybe can be spread out, rolled out over the year,” said Ms Wendy Cutler, a former US trade negotiator who now heads the Asia Society’s Washington policy center.

These meetings include a potential visit to Washington for Mr Xi, a China-hosted APEC summit in November and a US-hosted G20 summit in December. REUTERS