Washington: US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed on Monday that Washington expects support from its allies and friends, including India, over its attempt to counter China’s latest export controls on rare earths.
In an interview with Fox News, Bessent characterised the Chinese export controls as “China versus the world” and expressed confidence that US partners would extend their backing behind Washington’s efforts.
“We have already been in touch with the allies. We will be meeting with them this week, and I expect that we will get substantial global support from the Europeans, from the Indians, from the democracies in Asia…This is a global problem, and I think our global allies will follow us on this,” he added.
Bessent asserted that the US won’t “let these export restrictions and monitoring go on” and “everything is on the table” to retaliate against Chinese measures.
“Back in early summer, we were forced to put 12 countermeasures on China that were highly affected by natural resources that are used in the making of plastics for jet engines and parts. I believe that they had to ground a large part of their civilian fleet. So, we have plenty of straight brute force countermeasures that we can pull,” he said.
US President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to impose additional 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese products from November 1 and export controls on “any critical software.”
In another post, he hinted at cancelling a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, accusing Beijing of “hostile” trade behaviour after China expanded export controls on rare earth elements.
However, on Sunday, Trump said there is no need to “worry about China” and the Chinese President just “had a bad moment.”
Last week, Beijing tightened its export control measures on rare-earth elements and imposed a fee on US ships as Washington expanded its own rules governing exports.
Bessent confirmed that the meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping would still happen in South Korea.
“President Trump said that the tariffs would not go into effect until November 1. He will be meeting with Party Chair Xi in Korea. I believe that the meeting will still be on. There has been substantial communication over the weekend,” he noted.
Both sides have been engaged in trade negotiations since April, with a temporary truce expiring on November 10.
(IANS)
