Vice Premier He Lifeng, also Beijing's lead figure for China-US economic and trade affairs, held a video call on Saturday with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, during which the two sides agreed to hold a new round of economic and trade consultations as soon as possible.

Bessent said after the call he expects to meet next week with He in Malaysia to try to forestall an escalation of 100 percent US tariffs on Chinese goods that President Donald Trump said was unsustainable on Friday, a week after first making the threat.

Trump had threatened to levy 100 percent tariffs on Chinese imports starting on November 1 unless Beijing scraps its latest export restrictions on rare-earth minerals and magnets, in which it is a dominant supplier, that are essential to tech manufacturing.

In the video call, Beijing said He and Bessent held candid, in-depth, and constructive exchanges on implementing the important consensus reached by President Xi Jinping and Trump during their phone talks since the start of this year and key issues in bilateral economic and trade relations.

Bessent made the announcement on his meeting with He during a White House cabinet meeting and later confirmed plans for the meeting after the call.

On X, the treasury chief said he and the vice-premier "engaged in frank and detailed discussions regarding trade between the United States and China" and added "we will meet in-person next week to continue our discussions".

The two previously met in four European cities over six months to hammer out a tariff truce that brought duties down from triple-digit levels for each country. That agreement expires on November 10.

A meeting in Malaysia would shift the venue to a Southeast Asian exporter that trades heavily with both China and the United States and whose goods are now subject to a 19 percent duty imposed by Trump. Malaysia also faces a threatened 100 percent US tariff on its semiconductors and derivative electronics devices under a national security trade review.

The head of the World Trade Organization urged Beijing and Washington to de-escalate trade tensions, warning that a decoupling by the world's two largest economies could reduce global economic output by 7 percent over the longer term.

WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the global trade body was extremely concerned about the latest spike in Sino-US trade tensions and had spoken with officials from both countries to encourage more dialogue. (Reuters/Xinhua)