WASHINGTON – US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer signalled modest expectations for a much anticipated summit between US President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping, suggesting the September meeting will focus on assessing current commitments rather than brokering new deals.
“It will be a moment for stock-taking, confirming the relationship, making sure China is complying with what it has agreed to do,” Greer said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “That’s really what we are looking forward to in this meeting.”
The US trade envoy said he expects an assessment of China’s commitment to delay rare-earths restrictions for a year as part of a tariff truce agreement reached in October in 2025.
Greer said Beijing’s compliance “is not perfect” but that the two nations are working together to address gaps.
Trump is expected to meet Xi in the US around Sept 24, weeks before their deal to ease trade tensions is set to expire.
Greer said the “number one deliverable” for the upcoming meeting is to maintain the stability of the US-China relationship.
“China is a big challenge for the US in many ways, but we want to make sure we are delivering stability,” he said.
Trump officials, however, are growing frustrated with Beijing’s failure to abide by the administration’s understanding of the deal, Bloomberg reported.
Still, Washington is reluctant to publicly admonish China and risk plunging the countries back into a trade war.
Pharmaceuticals are another pressure point.
China is a major supplier of active pharmaceutical ingredients and upstream materials needed to make medicines.
Nearly 700 US medicines use at least one key ingredient sourced only from China.
Greer said 17 pharmaceutical companies have committed to reshoring manufacturing in the US.
“We think about this a lot,” he said. “This is really critical because at the end of the day, if somehow you lose access to Chinese inputs, it can be a huge challenge for our own manufacturing base.”
Wendy Cutler, senior vice-president at the Asia Society Policy Institute and a veteran US trade negotiator, said Greer’s expectations for the next Trump-Xi summit show how challenging it has become to take the relationship forward.
She noted the contrast to Trump’s first term, when the administration sought to reshape ties through the Phase One trade deal.
“Surprisingly, he did not offer further insights into how the administration is looking to use the Board of Trade, the Board of Investment, and the AI dialogue, announced in May, to achieve new deliverables,” Cutler said in an e-mail, referring to initiatives announced after the last meeting between Trump and Xi in Beijing.
According to the White House, the two boards aim to manage trade across non-sensitive goods and give the two countries a forum to discuss investment-related issues. BLOOMBERG
