US and China Officials Meet in New York to Negotiate Trade and AI Rules

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng are set to meet in Manhattan on Sunday for extensive talks. The meeting at JPMorgan Chase headquarters, featuring US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, aims to forge potential agreements on artificial intelligence, tariffs, and critical minerals ahead of this week's high-stakes summit in Washington between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

At the center of the discussions is the future of the bilateral trade truce, which is scheduled to expire on November 10. Negotiators will also tackle the supply chain of rare earth magnets and critical minerals from China, a flow that US officials have deemed inadequate. Additionally, discussions will address artificial intelligence technology following reports of significant security breaches involving AI models. Analysts expect minor, incremental agreements designed to ease tensions in a relationship with critical implications for the global economy.

Tariffs and Economic Commitments

Many of the items on the agenda are a direct continuation of the previous meeting between Trump and Xi in Beijing last May. These include efforts to reduce tariffs on non-strategic goods, alongside a Chinese commitment to increase purchases of US agricultural equipment by $17 billion annually and buy over 200 Boeing aircraft.

This meeting continues a working format established over the past 16 months, during which Bessent, Lifeng, and Greer met in European and Asian cities to craft agreements for their leaders. These efforts led to the trade truce signed in South Korea in November 2025, which capped US tariffs on Chinese goods from Trump's second term at roughly 20%, after mutual escalation pushed them to triple-digit rates.

Artificial Intelligence and Strategic Technology

A central and new front in the talks concerns artificial intelligence, a field where the US and China are the leading global powers. Rare earth metals play a critical role in manufacturing the advanced semiconductors that power this technology.

"We will cover both open-weight models, featuring publicly accessible core components, and closed-weight systems," US officials noted regarding the upcoming regulatory framework.

Chinese open-weight models have gained popularity among US companies due to their lower cost compared to closed products from firms like Anthropic and OpenAI. Meanwhile, the administration is formulating rules to allow US pharmaceutical companies to invest in promising Chinese drugs and secure licensing agreements, even as broader investment restrictions remain in place.