US, China seek to wrap Paris talks on managed trade, agriculture deals for Xi-Trump summit

Top U.S. and Chinese economic officials were due to conclude talks in Paris on Monday, with potential areas of agreement in agriculture, critical minerals and managed trade that could be taken up by U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, sources familiar with the discussions said.

The sources told Reuters that the “remarkably stable” talks led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng would set in motion possible “deliverables” for Trump’s expected trip to China at the end of March to meet with Xi.

But the leaders would have the final say, they added.

Trump, however, told the Financial Times in an interview published on Sunday that he could also delay his summit with Xi later this month as he presses Beijing to help unblock the crucial Strait of Hormuz closed by Iran.

“We may delay,” he said of the trip.

The U.S. and Chinese delegations met for more than six hours on Sunday at the Paris headquarters of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, a club of mostly wealthy democracies that does not count China as a member.

In the talks, the Chinese side showed openness to potential additional purchases of U.S. agricultural goods including poultry, beef and non-soybean row crops, one of the sources said.

China was still committed to buying 25 million metric tons of American soybeans for each of the next three years under the Trump-Xi October 2025 trade truce, the source added.

Spokespersons for the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. Trade Representative’s office declined to characterize the talks, while Chinese officials left on Sunday without speaking to reporters.

In a statement on Monday, China’s commerce ministry rebuked the United States over a trade investigation into forced labour, urging Washington to “correct its wrongdoings”, and citing representations made to the United States

“Meaningful” progress in Sino‑U.S. economic cooperation could restore confidence to an increasingly fragile global economy, the official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary on Sunday.

The Paris talks follow several meetings to ease tension last year between Bessent, He, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Chinese chief trade negotiator Li Chenggang.