U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday insisted that Washington did not want to escalate a trade conflict with China, stressing that President Donald Trump is ready to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea later this month.

Bessent told a CNBC event that officials from both countries were in touch daily to set up the meeting, and Washington did not want to decouple from the second-largest economy in the world.

He said it was due to trust between Trump and Xi that the trade conflict between the two countries has not escalated further.

The two countries appeared poised to return to an all-out trade war late last week, after China on Thursday announced a major expansion of its rare earths export controls. Trump responded on Friday by threatening to raise tari

See Full Page