Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng are set to meet for another round of US-China talks. Both sides are searching for a way forward on a TikTok ban and a November tariff deadline.
The meeting in Madrid will cover “trade issues of mutual interest,” including the fate of TikTok in the US, as well as national security issues like money laundering networks, according to the Treasury Department.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce also confirmed the meeting, adding that talks will occur Sept. 14-17 and that both “U.S. unilateral tariff measures” and TikTok would be on the agenda.
The talks come as deadlines on both the tariff and TikTok fronts have already been delayed multiple times — but may come to a head soon.
On tariffs, President Trump granted another 90-day tariff delay last month, once again pushing off a potential return to triple-digit duties between the world’s two largest economies until November.
Meanwhile, the TikTok deadline — when a US law says TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, needs to sell the app or see it banned in the US — is set to expire on Sept. 17, even as Trump has already said he is likely to extend it.
Bessent will be in Europe on Sept. 12-18, with stops in both Spain and the United Kingdom.
The hope from markets around these talks is likely to hinge on any signs of easing around these two specific issues, with few expectations, as Capital Economics noted in an analysis this week, of any “US-China grand bargain” in the coming months.
The analysis adds that the larger trends in evidence are in the direction of a global economy that is in the process of coalescing into two blocs — one orbiting around the US and another around China.
Read more: The latest news and updates on Trump’s tariffs
The current tariff deadline of Nov. 10 is when triple-digit tariffs — briefly in place at the beginning of Trump’s term — could return.
Current duties between the two nations are 30% on Chinese imports and 10% on American goods. Sector-specific tariffs on goods like steel and some medical supplies are currently pushing the effective tariff rate between the two countries higher.
The latest deadline also comes amid a new focus from Trump on pressuring China for its ongoing purchases of Russian oil.
The White House has already imposed 25% tariffs on some goods from India because of its oil purchases. A new pressure campaign was unveiled on Friday to push G7 nations to consider tariffs as high as 100% on both India and China over the issue.
