US Treasury Secretary Scott Becent arrives in Madrid on September 14, 2025 to meet Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Alvarez to continue his discussions on trade, economic and national security issues.
Anna Bertrand | Reuters
US-China trade negotiations ended in Spain on Monday and were concluded after two days of consultations on tariff charges, export restrictions and several fixed points from the imminent deadline for the sale of Chinese-owned Tiktok.
Both countries have reached a “framework” deal on social media platforms, Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent said Monday.
“It lies between two private parties, but commercial terms are agreed,” he said from the US-China conference in Madrid. Both President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet on Friday to discuss the conditions.
The news comes ahead of Wednesday’s deadline to sell Tiktok’s US business or close down social media apps in the country.
Bescent led the negotiations along with US trade representative Jamieson Greer, with the Chinese being represented by his deputy prime minister, his Lifeeng and top trade negotiator Li Chenggang.
The Madrid meeting marked a fourth-round bilateral meeting in four months after reaching an agreement in May to suspend most of the sudden tariffs and return some of the mutual restrictions. Last month, a trip to Washington by senior Chinese trade negotiator Li Chenggang made little progress.
Country tensions have been rising recently. Over the weekend, China launched two surveys on the US semiconductor industry, including anti-dumping probes related to certain US-made analog IC chips, and an anti-discrimination investigation into the US movements in China’s chip sector.
The investigation began after the US added 23 Chinese-based companies to its Entity List last Friday.
On Monday, Chinese market regulators said a preliminary investigation was found. nvidia It violates the country’s anti-competitive laws and further investigations will be made into US chip giants.
After the meetings on Monday, Bescent described the announcement of the Nvidia investigation as “bad timing.”
George Chen, partner in digital practice at Asia Advisory the Asia Group, said Nvidia will become “leverage for both parties” and “leverage for both parties” and “part of Beijing’s negotiation tactics.”
Barbs exchanged prior to the Madrid settlement “doesn’t encouragement,” said Wendy Cutler, former trade representative and head of the Asian Association Policy Institute in Washington, adding that China could “drive hard bargains” on Trump’s second mission and would likely demand compensation in exchanges to lift these new measures.
Cutler pointed out that Beijing managed to remove certain controls on exporting high-tech equipment to China after tightening the export of critical minerals and magnets to the US.
“With this approach, it is difficult to see how bilateral economic relations improve.
Separately, China’s Commerce Ministry has pushed back the statement in a statement opposed to Trump’s demands on the European Union to impose up to 100% secondary tariffs on Russia’s oil purchases.
As this was a “classic act of unilateral bullying and economic coercion,” and “a “serious violation of consensus” during the call between Trump and XI earlier this year, a spokesman for the statement vowed to declare “necessary measures” to defend Beijing’s legitimate interests.
Authorities were also expected to discuss details of a potential in-person meeting with Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping later this year. The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that Beijing had tried to mediate Trump’s visit to China for the past two months.
– CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng contributed to the report.
