Bessent says aircraft engines, chemicals could be leverage in US-China talks

By Andrea Shalal and Doina Chiacu

WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - U.S. aircraft engines and parts, along with certain chemicals, could provide important leverage for the United States in its talks with China, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday.

Bessent told Fox Business Network's "Mornings with Maria" program that rare earth minerals from China were flowing, but the U.S. was continuing its efforts to shore up supplies of certain strategic goods and products.

"We're not without levers on our side. We have plenty of products that they depend on us for," Bessent said, listing aircraft engines and parts, along with certain chemicals and plastics, as well as the ingredients for silicon.

Bessent said the market for initial public offerings of companies was another lever the United States could use in its discussions with China.

He said he and other Trump administration officials had spoken with their Chinese counterparts four times already, and would be meeting them again in October and November before the November 10 expiration of a pause in higher tariff rates.

"Look, we approach them with mutual respect. They're the second-biggest economy in the world, but the United States had made it clear we have priorities, we have interests, and we're going to defend them."

The Treasury Secretary said the U.S. was pushing as hard as it could to ensure a secure supply of semiconductors produced by the United States or other close allies, and reduce risk given Taiwan's near-total domination of that market.

"The single greatest point of failure for the world economy is that 99% of the high-performance chips are produced in Taiwan," Bessent said.

"They do a great job, they have a wonderful ecosystem, but in terms of risk management, I don't know whether it's 30, 40, 50% of our needs, we have got to bring back to the U.S. or our allies, whether it's Japan or the Middle East, and we're working on that every day," he said.