With President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping scheduled to meet on a state-visit timetable that the White House says begins March 31, U.S. and Chinese officials are holding preparatory trade talks in Europe. The U.S. Treasury Department said Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, will meet Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Paris on Sunday and Monday for a new round of negotiations.
The AP report said the Bessent-He meetings are being viewed as groundwork for Trump’s state visit to Beijing. Beijing has not confirmed the visit, but the White House has said Trump is traveling to meet Xi Jinping, and the administration is expected to use the run-up to the leaders’ meeting to keep relations stable between the world’s two largest economies.
In a statement Thursday, Bessent said the U.S.-China trade and economic dialogue is moving forward “Thanks to the bonds of mutual respect between President Trump and President Xi,” and he said “Under the guidance of President Trump, our team will continue to deliver results that put America’s farmers, workers, and businesses first.” The statement frames the next round of talks as part of an effort to produce tangible trade outcomes before leaders meet.
China’s commerce ministry confirmed that He will travel to France for talks with the United States. The ministry said the two sides are set to discuss “trade and economic issues of mutual concern,” using the confirmation to define the agenda ahead of any higher-level engagement.
At the same time, the commerce ministry criticized the Trump administration’s latest trade investigation. In a separate statement, it said the investigation into 16 trading partners including China would “seriously undermine the international economic and trade order,” and it added that China will “closely monitor the situation and reserves the right to take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.”
The AP report said the investigation came after a Supreme Court ruling struck down Trump’s sweeping global tariffs imposed last year, which had already resulted in lower tariffs for countries including China. Analysts and business observers said the Bessent-He meetings will be closely watched for signals about possible agreements, including whether China would buy more U.S. products such as soybeans and airplanes and how the two sides plan to manage ongoing trade imbalance questions.
Formerly, Trump’s visit would mark the first time a U.S. president has gone to China since he visited in his first term in 2017. It is also scheduled to occur about five months after Trump and Xi met in Busan, South Korea, where they agreed to a one-year truce in a trade war that previously pushed tariffs to triple digits, the AP report said.
The lead-up has included diplomatic messaging from China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, who recently said 2026 would be “a big year” for U.S.-China relations. While he did not confirm the state visit, he said the “agenda of high-level exchange is already on the table,” and urged preparations to “create a suitable environment, manage the risks that do exist and remove unnecessary disruptions,” according to the AP report.
The Paris talks also reflect the continuing work by Bessent and He on trade negotiations that started last year and have included meetings in Geneva, London, Stockholm, Madrid, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.