[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: We begin this morning with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is traveling with President Trump. He joins us from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Good evening to you.
TREASURY SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Margaret, good to speak to you.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You have been negotiating directly with the Chinese. You said today a truce may have been reached. The threat on the table was a 155% tariff on China. The President said that would be effective November 1. Is that off the table? What are the terms?
SEC. BESSENT: Margaret, I think we had a very good two day meeting. I would believe that the- so it would be an extra 100% from where we are now, and I believe that that is effectively off the table. I’m not going to get ahead of the two leaders who will be meeting in Korea on Thursday, but I can tell you we had a very good two days. So I would expect that the threat of the 100% has gone away, as has the threat of the immediate imposition of the Chinese initiating a worldwide export control regime.
MARGARET BRENNAN: That export control on rare earths, which is used in all sorts of electronics and automobiles. That will be lifted?
SEC. BESSENT: Well, it was never imposed, so they threatened to impose it in December, and President Trump, to give me and the trade team leverage, decided that it would be a good idea for him to threaten a 100% additional tariff, and it did give us a great deal of leverage. President Trump’s very good at creating leverage for us. This is the fourth meeting- excuse me, the fifth meeting that we’ve had with the Chinese. My Chinese counterpart is the Vice Premier, He Lifeng, so we had a very good two days. We discussed a wide variety of issues, from the rare earth- from the rare earth magnets to trade, to substantial purchases of American agricultural products, to the Chinese helping us in this fentanyl crisis that we have in the US.
MARGARET BRENNAN: On the purchases of American goods. American farmers have been hit hard by China’s boycott of American soybeans that went into place after the tariff war began here. The administration is pumping at least $3 billion in financial aid to farmers to help make them whole, or at least offset the pain. Can farmers expect to sell their soybeans to China again and when?
SEC. BESSENT: Margaret, I’m not going to give you the details here, but I can tell you that the soybean farmers are going to be extremely happy with this deal for this year and for the coming years.
MARGARET BRENNAN: A few weeks ago, there was a photographer who snapped a photo of you texting with the agricultural Secretary about this. She indicated concern about the unintended damage to American farmers from the U.S. financial lifeline being given to Argentina because that country was able to sell more to China, that gave Beijing leverage over the United States. Is that leverage still a problem today?
SEC. BESSENT: Well, first- first of all, the text from Secretary Rollins was talking- talking about a purchase of soybeans that the Chinese did and Margaret, those soybeans were always going to get purchased. They just did it at a time when the Argentines had lifted their export taxes. So those- those soybeans, were always going to be on the market. It’s a global market. The three leading suppliers are Brazil, Argentina and the U.S. And I believe that we have brought the market back into equilibrium, and I believe that the Chinese will be making substantial purchases again.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So you dispute the idea that America hurt itself by giving this $20 billion lifeline to Argentina? Can you guarantee Americans, they’ll be made whole on that?
SEC. BESSENT: Margaret, I can tell you that the Exchange Stabilization Fund has never lost money. It will not lose money this time. And we are not giving money to Argentina. It is a swap line, which the U.S. has done many times in the past, and we’ve never lost money
MARGARET BRENNAN: On the Chinese, I saw that you mentioned TikTok was discussed. Are the details of the President’s Executive Order, released in September, are those finalized? Has China agreed to give up control of the algorithm that determines what users see?
SEC. BESSENT: Margaret, we reached a final deal on TikTok. We reached one in Madrid, and I believe that as of today, all the details are ironed out, and that will be for the two leaders to consummate that transaction on Thursday in Korea.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Can you tell us any details of that transaction?
SEC. BESSENT: Margaret, I’m not part of the commercial side of the transaction. The- my, my remit was to get the Chinese to agree to approve the transaction, and I believe we successfully accomplished that over the past two days.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Over the past two days, did the U.S. make any concessions here beyond what we discussed with the tariffs? Are you dropping restrictions on exports of, for example, semiconductor chips, or restrictions on Chinese investment in the United States?
SEC. BESSENT: There have been no, no changes via- in our export controls.
MARGARET BRENNAN: When presidents Xi and Trump are able to speak on Thursday. Do you believe that the president’s position here, his ability to negotiate a deal with China, is going to be hurt by the fact that he’s been unable to get a deal here at home, to reopen the US government?
SEC. BESSENT: Well, look, I don’t think it’s going to, I don’t think it’s going to hurt. It’s a global embarrassment what these Democratic senators are doing, keep- keeping the government shut down. I mean, look at the numbers. It’s 52-3, 52 Republican senators, three Democratic senators have come across the line. So I just think it’s an embarrassment, doesn’t affect his ability on the international stage. Now what it does affect, it’s starting to affect the economy. It’s starting to slow down air traffic. And I would urge moderate Democrats to be heroes, come across the aisle, like they did in the spring, and pass a clean CR.
MARGARET BRENNAN: A continuing resolution just to fund the government without any add-ons. Does that mean when the President comes back to the United States, he’s going to summon congressional leaders to the White House to end what you call the global embarrassment?
SEC. BESSENT: I don’t know what good it does to summon them to the White House. This is a Democratic-led boycott, and I’m just not sure what they’re doing. What’s changed between now and March other than Chuck Schumer’s poll numbers? And I think Hakeem Jeffries is now going to be primaried from the left, and I didn’t think there was a lot of room over there. So both of them are worried about their primaries, and not the American people, not the government employees, not our military employees, because we were able to pay the military employees from excess funds at the Pentagon, middle of this month. I think we’ll be able to pay them beginning in November. But by November 15 our troops and service members who are willing to risk their lives aren’t going to be able to get paid. What an embarrassment.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Understood. We’ll talk to Hakeem Jeffries later in the program. I want to ask you about what the President just announced in regard to Canada. Today, the President said he wants to raise tariffs on Mexico. Yesterday, he said he’s going to raise tariffs on Canada by 10%. He blames what he called a fraudulent ad that featured Ronald Reagan advocate- advocating for free trade. It was put up by the province of Ontario. Is this ad really the issue here, or is it just a tactic in this negotiation? Does the President want the USMCA free trade deal renegotiated, or is he looking to do two separate deals, one with Canada, one with Mexico?
SEC. BESSENT: A lot of questions there, Margaret, but let’s go to the first one. I’ve read that the province of Ontario is spending up to $75 million on these advertisements, and it’s propaganda coming across our border to decry the tariffs. So the Premier of Ontario seems to have come off the rails a little. He has taken the ads down. But what’s the purpose of that other than to try to sway U.S. public opinion? We’ve seen the- I’m sure the- you at your network have decried election interference. Well, this is interference in U.S. sovereign matters.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But is it really the premise for damaging negotiations with a top trading partner?
SEC. BESSENT: Well, it’s clearly damaged our relationship the- with the most populous province in Canada.
MARGARET BRENNAN: When it comes to inflation here at home, the president said it’s been defeated. But as you know, that core inflation edged up to 3% in September, less than forecast, hotter than August. But for people at home, they are seeing prices still high on furniture, energy, gardening, lawn care, apparel. Do you expect these things to cool off and when?
SEC. BESSENT: Well, it is cooling off because the core inflation number that you referenced was 0.2% which is down the- from the previous sequence over the previous months. And you listed the things that are up, but we’re seeing plenty of things that are down, whether it’s energy and rents. Inflation is a composite number, and I think we are on a glide path to lower inflation over the coming months.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Lower inflation, but not necessarily that Americans will look around and things have gotten cheaper.
SEC. BESSENT: Margaret, again, there’s affordability and then there is inflation. So some of the things that can get cheaper, rent has gotten cheaper, mortgages have gotten cheaper. We are at, I believe, an 11 or 12 month low on mortgage rates.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mr. Secretary, before I let you go, I want to ask you, the U.S. sanctioned Russia’s top oil and gas companies this past week, but Vladimir Putin’s envoy, who is here in the United States, Kirill Dmitriev, I know you know him, said the sanctions will have, quote, “absolutely no effect on Russia’s economy. They will simply lead to higher prices at gas stations in the United States.” Is Dmitriev wrong? And when will Russia actually feel the pain?
SEC. BESSENT: Well, I think Russia is going to feel the pain immediately. I can tell you that we’ve already seen India has done a complete halt of Russian oil purchases. Many of the Chinese refineries have stopped. And Margaret, are you really going to- the- publish what a Russian propagandist says? I mean, what else is he going to say? That oh, it’s going to be terrible, and it’s going to bring Putin to the table. Of course- the Russian economy is a wartime economy. Growth is virtually zero. Inflation, I believe, is over 20% and everything we do is going to bring Putin to the- to the table. It’s oil that funds the Russian war machine, and I think we can make a substantial dent in his profits.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I understood, you had some competing noise there, but just to be clear, Dmitriev is in the United States because sanctions were- were lifted on him to conduct meetings here, including with President Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff. When you say he’s a propagandist, do you mean that we shouldn’t listen to anything he says?
SEC. BESSENT: I- what do you- what do you think is going to happen to him if he goes back home and says the- the- good lord. What if he had said on TV, this is terrible, President Trump just did the right thing. This is a maximum pressure campaign that’s going to work. Margaret, what’s he going to say? Of course, he’s going to say this. If you go through and look at every Russian talking point, they seem to use the word, we have immunized the economy against this. Well, they haven’t immunized the economy. Their oil earnings are down 20% year over year. I would suspect that this could take them down another 20 or 30%. So again, President Trump was criticized for not doing enough. He takes his bold maneuver, and then you’re quoting a Russian propagandist.
MARGARET BRENNAN: All right, we’ll leave it there with you, Mr. Secretary. I know you’ve had a long day. Thank you for your time.
SEC. BESSENT: Thank you.
[Transcript END]
