US, China trade chiefs to meet in mid-March before Trump-Xi summit

WASHINGTON/BEIJING – US and Chinese trade negotiators are slated to meet in mid-March, according to people familiar with the matter, signalling that a planned summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping is pushing ahead despite American strikes against Iran.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and China’s Vice-Premier He Lifeng are expected to convene in Paris at the end of next week to discuss business deals that could stem from the leaders’ meeting, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss plans that are not yet public.

Both the timing and location of the meeting could still shift, the sources added.

Among the issues that could be addressed are a possible Chinese purchase of Boeing planes, commitments to buy US soya beans, and Taiwan, the self-ruled island China views as its own, some of the sources said.

The future of US fentanyl tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court could also be on the agenda, they added. 

The US Treasury and the Chinese Ministry of Commerce did not reply to requests for comment.

US strikes on Iran
and the killing of its Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have stoked tensions with Beijing in recent days, complicating summit preparations.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called it “unacceptable to openly kill the leader of a sovereign country and institute regime change”.

China also condemned the US’ use of force after the Trump administration snatched Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro
from his Caracas home in January. 

Mr Trump is travelling to China between March 31 and April 2 to meet Mr Xi, the first trip to the country by an American president since his visit in 2017.

Those dates announced by the US have not been confirmed by Beijing, which normally releases details of the Chinese leader’s itinerary only days in advance. 

The mid-March meeting marks the first sit-down between high-level US and Chinese officials since the Supreme Court dealt a blow to Mr Trump’s global tariff strategy, forcing him to pursue more restrictive and complicated means to impose trade levies. 

The expected timeframe of the meeting means officials will have only about two weeks until the leaders’ summit to finalise any business deals and logistical arrangements of Mr Trump’s visit.

Mr Trump in January said he was looking forward to Mr Xi putting on the “biggest display you’ve ever had in the history of China” for him, noting that the Chinese leader treated him “so well” during his 2017 trip.

On that visit, the US leader was granted a private tour of Beijing’s Forbidden City.

Months later, Mr Trump began his first trade war with the world’s second-largest economy.

Mr He’s meeting with Mr Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, along with broader economic talks, are being kept separate from other geopolitical aspects of the US-China relationship, according to a person familiar with the matter.

While neither Iran nor Venezuela is considered a key trade or defence partner for China, Mr Trump’s escalating campaign of regime change has fuelled uncertainty about whether the US President could target a leader with closer links to Mr Xi.

The turmoil in the Middle East is also unfolding as the Chinese President heads into one of China’s most important political weeks during which officials will unveil the economic growth goal for 2026. 

Mr Bessent, Mr Greer and Mr He have a history of bilateral negotiations.

They met in Geneva last May to launch a series of talks that saw follow-on sessions in London, Stockholm, Madrid and Kuala Lumpur.

That resulted in a truce under which Washington and Beijing lowered tariffs and export restrictions. 

Negotiators most recently met informally on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland earlier in 2026.

Speaking from Davos in January, Mr Greer said the two sides could try to move past highly sensitive issues such as technology competition in talks ahead of Mr Trump’s visit to China and try to reach an agreement on trade in non-sensitive sectors. BLOOMBERG