Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the top Democrat on a Russian secondary sanctions bill, said he's not discouraged that Senate Majority Leader John Thune is putting off a vote on the bill again. The bill has 85 sponsors in the Senate, and would give the president the ability to put up to 500% tariffs on the goods of countries that buy Russian fossil fuels; it also would expand sanctions on Russian officials.
President Donald Trump told reporters that unless China stops fentanyl shipments, resumes buying U.S. soybeans and stops playing "the rare earth game with us," he won't lower tariffs.
President Donald Trump, on his way to Israel, softened his message on tariffs on Chinese goods. When asked if imposing those tariffs was still the plan, he said, "Right now it is. Let's see what happens. November 1st is an eternity."
President Donald Trump reacted angrily to China's plan to expand export restrictions, including when rare earths are in products made abroad (see 2510090021. In a social media post that seemed to trigger a 2.7% drop in the S&P 500, he wrote, "Dependent on what China says about the hostile 'order' that they have just put out, I will be forced, as President of the United States of America, to financially counter their move. For every Element that they have been able to monopolize, we have two."
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., introduced a bill last week to direct the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to prioritize convincing Canada and Mexico to institute a foreign investment review board similar to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he and President Donald Trump discussed how to "decisively increase the pressure" on Russian President Vladimir Putin "to get him to agree to a peace deal."
When asked whether a broader trade agreement might be reached with China, beyond the current tariff truce, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said each of the four meetings has become more productive. There will need to be a fifth meeting before the truce expires Nov. 10, he told CNBC from London on Sept. 16. "I think the Chinese now sense a trade deal is more possible," he said.
After two days of talks between U.S. and Chinese officials, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that they and Chinese counterpart Vice Premier He Lifeng have a "framework" for a deal for China's Byte Dance to divest TikTok to U.S. buyers, and that deal will be completed on Sept. 19 as Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump talk about the divestiture.
President Donald Trump posted over the weekend that he's prepared to levy new sanctions against Moscow if U.S. allies stop purchasing Russian oil and potentially put in place other sanctions against the country.
Former U.S. trade representative Michael Froman, at an event hosted by the centrist think tank Brookings Institution, said deciding how to apply export controls is "really difficult," and quite technical, as technologies evolve.