US hopes to finalise rare earths deal with China this month: Bessent

US TREASURY Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday that Washington hopes to finalise a deal with China for securing supplies of rare earths by the Thanksgiving holiday at the end of November.

Under the tentative deal - reached in late October at a meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in South Korea - Beijing agreed to suspend for one year certain export restrictions on critical minerals.

China is hugely dominant in the mining and processing of rare earths, which are essential for sophisticated electronic components across a range of industries including auto, electronics and defence.

“We haven’t even finished the agreement, which we hope to have done by Thanksgiving,” which falls on Nov 27, Bessent said on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures programme.

“And I am confident that - post our meeting in Korea between the two leaders, President Trump, President Xi - that China will honour their agreements.”

But, Bessent warned, if Beijing balks, the United States has “lots of levers” to retaliate.

The Treasury secretary insisted that under the deal, rare earths “will flow freely as they did before April 4,” when China slapped restrictions on the sector, requiring export licenses for certain products in response to Trump’s sweeping tariffs.

Under the deal reached by Trump and Xi, the United States will cut back tariffs on Chinese products, and Beijing will buy at least 12 million metric tons of American soybeans by the end of this year, and 25 million metric tons in 2026.

China, which had stopped buying US soybeans in response to Trump’s tariffs, “made pawns out of our great soybean farmers,” Bessent said.

“But we believe that we have remedied that,” he added. AFP

Decoding Asia newsletter: your guide to navigating Asia in a new global order. Sign up here to get Decoding Asia newsletter. Delivered to your inbox. Free.