Washington and Beijing left New York with a working Board of Trade, a second round of AI talks scheduled, and a Monday follow-up meeting — but no word yet on the November 10 truce expiry.

Summary

  • US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described his engagement with Chinese officials on trade and AI in New York on Sunday as “very successful.” The two sides agreed to meet again on an AI dialogue, and the US proposed a notification mechanism between the two countries.
  • US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the Board of Trade has been made operational, with US and Chinese teams continuing to work on it.
  • Greer said consumer goods and low-tech items are expected to be included from the Chinese side, while US goods could include energy products, agricultural goods, and potentially medical devices.
  • China’s top trade negotiator, Li, said the talks were “not bad,” that the working group will continue on Monday, and that both sides discussed AI alongside trade and investment.
  • The meetings, which included Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, were held ahead of a summit this week between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.
  • Comments reported so far did not cover the US-China trade truce — which expires on November 10 — or US concerns about Chinese critical mineral flows.

Talks in Detail

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he had a “very successful” engagement with Chinese officials on trade and artificial intelligence after talks in New York on Sunday, ahead of a summit this week between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Bessent said the two sides agreed to meet again on an AI dialogue and that the US proposed a notification mechanism between the two countries. The meetings, which also included US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, were held at JPMorgan Chase’s Manhattan headquarters.

Greer focused on the Board of Trade, the mechanism the two countries agreed in May to launch discussions on cutting tariffs on non-strategic goods. He said it has been made operational, with US and Chinese teams continuing to work on it. On the Chinese side, he said consumer goods and low-tech items are expected to be included. For the US side, he said the goods could include energy products, agricultural goods, and potentially medical devices.

China’s top trade negotiator, Li, said the talks were “not bad” and that discussions would continue on Monday among the working group. He confirmed that both sides discussed AI along with trade and investment.

Key Issues Left Unaddressed

The comments reported so far did not address two items flagged before the meeting: the US-China trade truce, which is set to expire on November 10, and US complaints that Chinese flows of rare-earth magnets and critical minerals have fallen short. A senior US official said on Friday that China’s performance on minerals has not been up to par. Analysts had cautioned that the most likely outcome was a set of small steps showing both sides were avoiding escalation rather than a breakthrough, and the tone of the remarks fits that description.

The talks continue a pattern of the past 16 months in which Bessent, Greer, and He have met before leader-level meetings, including the November 2025 Busan truce that capped US tariffs on Chinese goods at around 20%. Many current issues are holdovers from the leaders’ May meeting in Beijing, including Chinese pledges to buy around $17 billion a year of US agricultural goods and more than 200 Boeing aircraft.

Market and Policy Implications

The tone is constructive, but the reported outcomes are procedural — no tariff rates or purchase volumes have been confirmed — so markets are unlikely to treat this as a breakthrough. US energy and agricultural exporters are the obvious sentiment beneficiaries if goods in those categories end up on the final Board of Trade list, though that depends on Chinese demand and tariff treatment that has yet to be spelled out. The emphasis on consumer and low-tech items suggests tariff relief is aimed at non-strategic goods, leaving the sensitive areas of chips and rare earths outside the mechanism for now.

The mention of agricultural goods as a possible US Board of Trade item would sit alongside existing farm purchase pledges, and energy products represent a new category worth watching. What matters next is whether Monday’s working-group talks produce a specific list of goods and tariff treatment, whether the AI dialogue gets a firm schedule, and whether the truce expiry and critical minerals are addressed before the summit.

Xi is scheduled to visit Washington on Thursday, September 24, for a state visit hosted by Trump — the leaders’ second summit of 2026, following their Beijing meeting in May. With the November 10 truce expiry still unaddressed, headline risk remains elevated going into the summit.