US Treasury's Bessent expects large Boeing order during China visit

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday said he expected an announcement about large Chinese orders for Boeing BA.N aircraft during President Donald Trump's visit to Beijing, adding that Washington wanted to expand exports to China.

"I think we're going to see the large Boeing orders," Bessent told CNBC's "Squawk Box" program taped earlier on Thursday. The two sides would also discuss other purchases, including of energy and agricultural goods, as well as non-strategic areas in which China could invest in the United States, Bessent said.

He downplayed prospects of big new soybean orders, saying they were "all taken care of" under a previous agreement, although he said China should consider increasing its orders given the El Nino weather pattern expected this year that typically drives prices higher.

Fireworks were among goods that the US would not seek to reshore, Bessent told CNBC after meetings with Chinese counterparts.

Thursday was the first day of a two-day summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, which Chinese state media said would set a new course for relations between the countries. Chinese purchases of Boeing jets, US energy and agricultural products have been flagged as possible parts of a deal, although no concrete details have emerged yet.

The CEO of Boeing and more than a dozen other top executives joined Trump during the visit to Beijing.

Boeing shares jumped 1.3 percent in pre-market trading after Bessent's comments. He gave no details about the expected Chinese order but said the two sides were discussing starting with some US$30 billion each in purchases of the other's goods.

He said Chinese officials raised the prospect of buying more US energy, noting that the US was going to build more export facilities for liquefied natural gas, including in Alaska, which would be a prime location for sales to China.

Bessent also said US and Chinese officials discussed forming a "Board of Trade" to govern bilateral trade between the world's two largest economies, and a separate "Board of Investment" that would oversee investment in non-sensitive areas.

He pushed back against a suggestion that Trump was seeking some US$1 trillion in investment by China, saying, "I'm not sure where this US$1 trillion investment number has come from."

He said the new investment board would preview any Chinese plans to ensure they did not fall under the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which he chairs.

"What we want to do is make sure that these investments don't get referred to CFIUS, so this would pregame those investments, just to make sure that they're not of a strategic or sensitive area," Bessent said.

Trump told Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday that he wanted to open up China and rebalance the trade relationship.

"We're focused on getting it into balance," Bessent said. "That's the goal here, and that can be done one of two ways - either the US receives fewer imports from China, or we sell more to China, and we're trying to balance that out."

Reuters

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