US and Chinese officials to hold trade talks in Malaysia

They will seek a way forward amid Beijing's rare earth export curbs and Trump tariff threat

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Workers transporting soil containing rare earth elements in China's Jiangsu province. The US-China talks due to start on Oct 25 are again focused on China's stranglehold over global supplies of rare earth minerals and magnets essential for high-tech manufacturing, which Beijing has used as an effective leverage point against Washington.

(PHOTO: REUTERS)

Top economic officials from the US and China were due to arrive in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 24 for talks to prevent a trade war escalation and keep next week's meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on track.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng to find a way forward after Mr Trump threatened new 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods and other trade curbs starting on Nov 1 in retaliation for China’s vastly expanded export controls on rare earth magnets and minerals.

The talks, due to start on Oct 25 on the sidelines of the Asean summit in the Malaysian capital, would be the fifth meeting between Mr He, Mr Bessent and Mr Greer since May, shifting from European cities to a key Asian exporter dependent on both China and the US.