Scott Bessent: Trump’s 100% tariff threat against China is ‘irrelevant’

President Donald Trump is expected to make progress this week on two pressing issues. during his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea: customs tariffs and TikTok.

During an interview Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said trade negotiations between the United States and China are moving forward. He said the additional 100% tariffs on China that President Donald Trump threatened earlier this month, and which were supposed to take effect Nov. 1, are now “effectively off the table.”

Bessent is traveling with Trump on a nearly weeklong tour of Asia, which also includes stops in Malaysia and Japan.

“I’m not going to preempt the two leaders who will meet in Korea on Thursday, but I can tell you that we had two very good days,” Bessent said, referring to his own meeting with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng. “So I would expect the threat of 100% to be gone, as is the threat of China’s immediate imposition of a global export control regime.”

In a separate interview on ABC News’ “This Week,” Bessent said China and the United States had reached a “substantial framework” for trade negotiations.

“The president gave me maximum leverage when he threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs if the Chinese imposed their global rare earth export controls, so I think we avoided that,” he said.

Jamieson Greer, the U.S. trade representative, echoed Bessent’s remarks when speaking to reporters in Malaysia on Sunday.

“We’re moving toward the final details of what kind of deal the leaders can look at and decide whether they want to do together,” Greer said, the New York Times reported.

On Sunday, Bessent also told “Face the Nation” that Trump and Xi could strike a TikTok deal when they meet on Thursday.

“We reached a final agreement on TikTok,” Bessent said. “We have reached Madrid, and I believe that as of today, all the details are worked out, and it will be up to the two leaders to conclude this transaction on Thursday in Korea.”

ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, is expected to sell the platform’s U.S.-based assets in response to a 2024 divestment or ban law. A group of companies and investors are expected to take over the popular social media app’s U.S. operations. Trump had earlier said that Larry Ellison and his company, Oracle, would be involved in the deal alongside Rupert Murdoch and Michael Dell. ByteDance is expected to retain a minority stake.

White House officials did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.