• Bessent says we believe China does not need to decouple.
• Says it’s more difficult to be more difficult than with other nations.
• China is the US’s top economic and military rival, Bessent says.

Buenos Aires: US Finance Minister Scott Bessent has criticized China’s Minister of Commerce for rejecting President Donald Trump’s duty as a “joke.” However, he emphasized that a larger agreement with Beijing could still be reached in the midst of escalating trade war between the two economic giants.

“There’s a big thing to do at some point,” Bessent said when asked by Bloomberg TV About the possibility of the world’s largest economies decoupling.

“There doesn’t have to be” decoupling, he said, “but there could be.”

Bessent emphasized that an agreement with China would be more difficult than with other nations because “China is both our biggest economic competitor and our largest military rival.”

The world’s two largest economies have been locked in a rapidly moving game with Brinkmanship since US President Donald Trump launched a global customs attack that especially targeted Chinese imports.

Tit-for-TAT exchanges have seen us taxes imposed on China rise to 145 percent, with Beijing putting a retaliatory band of 125 percent on US imports.

The US page has sent mixed messages about what it wants to achieve and about customs that would rock the world economy can be avoided.

The White House had been shown to call the pressure recently and indicate duty exemptions for smartphones, laptops, semiconductors and other electronic products that China is an important source of.

But Trump and some of his top helpers said on Sunday that the exceptions had been misunderstood and would only be temporary as his team pursued fresh tariffs against many items on the list.

“No one gets ‘off the hook’ … especially not China, which is far from treating us the worst!” He posted on the social platform of his truth.

Bessent warned that Trump’s tariffs were “not a joke.”

“These are big numbers. I think no one who thinks they are sustainable wants them to stay here.”

China’s Xi Jinping on Monday started a tour of Southeast Asia with a visit to Vietnam – where he warned that the protectionism “nowhere will lead” and a trade war would “not produce any winner.”

“We must strengthen strategic determination, jointly oppose unilateral bullying and maintain the stability of the global free trade system as well as industrial and supply chains,” XI told Vietnam’s top leader to lamb.

The White House has said that Trump remains optimistic in ensuring a trade agreement with China, even though administrative officials have made it clear that they expect Beijing to reach out only.

The trade war raises fears of an economic downturn when the dollar is tumbling and investors dumping US government bonds usually considered a safe port investment.