Overview
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Vice Premier He Lifeng are due to meet in Paris on March 15–16, with USTR Jamieson Greer participating, to frame potential trade deliverables for President Trump’s planned March 31–April 2 visit to Beijing.
- China’s commerce ministry confirmed He will travel March 14–17 for consultations and denounced the U.S. investigations as unilateral, urging Washington to reverse course.
- The Section 301 probes, which explicitly name China, are expected to take months and could justify new tariffs, and the USTR also opened separate forced‑labor reviews covering 60 economies including China.
- Analysts expect narrow, commercially focused outcomes at the leaders’ summit, with talks centering on purchases such as soybeans and aircraft and on U.S. access to rare earths, while major CEO participation remains uncertain.
- The war involving Iran and related energy risks could dominate or reshape the summit agenda, reinforcing expectations for stability in the trade truce rather than a sweeping agreement.