China trade standoff deepens as Bessent says U.S. will 'neither be commanded nor controlled'

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Wednesday that China’s recent restrictions on rare earths exports are a “global supply chain power grab.”

Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spoke to reporters at the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C., where Bessent said Beijing’s actions amounted to a provocation.

The remarks were the latest sign that the U.S.-China trade relationship continues to deteriorate after Beijing’s surprise announcement Thursday of new limits on rare earth minerals and related technologies.

In response, President Donald Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs on China as well as export controls on “any and all critical software.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng prior to the first meeting of the China-U.S. economic and trade consultation mechanism in London on June 9.Li Ying / Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images file

The only way China can avoid those new tariffs, Greer told NBC News, is to drop the proposed export controls.

Both Bessent and Greer were cautiously optimistic that Beijing would back down and return to the negotiating table

“Our expectation is that they won’t implement [the controls] and that we’ll be able to be back to where we were a week ago,” said Greer, “where we had the tariff levels we’ve agreed to and we have the flow of rare earth magnets we agreed to.”

In the meantime, Bessent said Washington was conferring with its allied trade partners about a unified response to the restrictions. “This is China vs. the world,” he said. “We and our allies will neither be commanded, nor controlled.”

Rare earth minerals are critical to the manufacture of a wide range of products such as batteries, electric vehicles, household goods, TVs and smartphones and solar panels.

After three rounds of what the officials called successful trade talks, China also has yet to officially approve the sale of TikTok U.S. and has not bought any soybeans from American farmers since May.

Nonetheless, Greer and Bessent said the current 90-day tariff pause in place with China — renewed at least three times so far — could be re-upped again for a longer interval if China lifts the rare earths restrictions.