Trump remains on track to meet Xi in S.Korea: Bessent

US President Donald Trump remains on track to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea in late October as the two sides try to deescalate tensions over tariff threats and export controls, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday.

- 

The latest rupture followed China's announcement on Thursday that it would dramatically expand its rare earths export controls. That drew a sharp countermeasure from Trump on Friday that sent markets and relations between the world's two largest economies into a spiral.

Bessent said there were substantial communications between the two sides over the weekend and more meetings were expected.

"We have substantially deescalated," Bessent said in an interview with Fox Business Network.

"President Trump said that the tariffs would not go into effect until November 1. He will be meeting with Party Chair Xi in Korea. I believe that meeting will still be on."

Trump and Xi had planned to meet during the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum hosted by South Korea in late October.

The softer tone soothed a jittery Wall Street, sparked a strong rebound in U.S. stocks at the start of trading in New York on Monday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index up nearly 2% and other major indexes up about 1%.