Exclusive | Treasury secretary tells ‘Pod Force One’ China’s 30% share of global manufacturing is ‘too high  — and it can’t go higher’

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday that China’s share of global manufacturing had become far “too high” in recent years — and the Trump administration needed to restore balance.

“President Trump wants the US to manufacture more and become a manufacturing powerhouse for precision manufacturing again. And the Chinese keep trying to up their share of manufacturing,” Bessent told Post columnist Miranda Devine in the latest episode of “Pod Force One,” out Wednesday.

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The Treasury chief noted that Beijing’s 30% share of manufacturing worldwide already “is too high — and it can’t go higher.”

Bessent has been in talks seeking a permanent US-China trade deal with the potential for more American exports after meeting for an initial conference in Switzerland with Beijing negotiators in May.

The objective had been to cool tensions in the trade war that had escalated after the US placed 145% tariffs on China. Beijing slapped American imports with a 125% rate in response.

The US team eventually managed to get the Chinese tariff rate down to 10% while levying a counter-rate against Beijing of 30%. That’s on top of the 25% duty already in place.

The two parties then met again in London last week to discuss getting rid of Chinese exports controls, Bessent told “Pod Force One.”

“We were trying to take off the export controls. So the magnets were not flowing as promised in Geneva. Unclear how much was just a glitch in the Chinese system, which is a slow command and control system. In the meantime, we had put some countermeasures on them. Some of them got publicity. We had embargoed aircraft engines, engine parts,” he went on.

Trump made an announcement following the London talks that the US and China had reached a deal.

“Our deal with China is done, subject to final approval with President Xi and me,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Full magnets, and any necessary rare earths, will be supplied, up front, by China.”

“Likewise, we will provide to China what was agreed to, including Chinese students using our colleges and universities (which has always been good with me!). We are getting a total of 55% tariffs, China is getting 10%. The relationship is excellent! Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Bessent said he will likely meet with China again in about “three weeks” to discuss more on trade and hopefully get them to open their markets to American products.

“So the idea is we agreed in London, magnets start flowing, we will take down our countermeasures, and then we’ll probably have another in-person meeting again in three weeks to see if we and do this mutual rebalancing. It should be natural.”

“Whether they’ll open up, we’ll see,” he added.