United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, on Wednesday, 15 October 2025, dismissed the notion that a decline in the stock market would force the Trump administration into a negotiating position with Beijing amid the looming tensions over the trade war between the US and China.
Treasury Secretary Bessent highlighted that such negotiations and discussions with the Asian nation are primarily driven by the national economic interests rather than market movement.
The US won’t negotiate with China “because the stock market is going down,” Bessent said on Wednesday.
Bessent on China’s rare earth mineral policy
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday that he predicts a coordinated global response from the United States and its allied nations to China’s move to restrict rare earth mineral exports to other countries, reported the news agency Bloomberg.
“We’re going to have a fulsome, group response to this, because bureaucrats in China cannot manage the supply chain or the manufacturing process for the rest of the world,” Bessent said at a CNBC-hosted forum in Washington.
The Treasury Secretary also said that “all my counterparts” will be present in Washington for the annual event of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
“We’re going to be speaking with our European allies, with Australia, with Canada, with India and the Asian democracies,” he said.
According to the agency report, last week, China also announced that foreign companies will now need to obtain approval from the Chinese government before exporting products containing even trace amounts of certain rare earth elements, which are sourced from China.
US-China trade talk, Trump’s visit
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that so far, US President Donald Trump “is a go” on the meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping later this month in South Korea.
According to the agency report, Bessent said that there’s a “very good chance” that Trump heads out to Asia before Trump to meet with his Chinese counterpart, Vice Premier He Lifeng.
Bessent expects that trade announcements will be made during Trump’s Asia tour and said that Donald Trump will also attend a summit with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Malaysia before going on to Japan and South Korea, which will be hosting the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders meeting.
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