U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent joins 'Power Lunch' to discuss how trade talks happen, what's pending the President Trump's approval and much more.

Stockholm

Donald Trump has signed an order to impose tariffs imports into the U.S. from countries including China, Mexico and Canada.

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US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent provided insight into the structure and progress of ongoing trade negotiations with China during a discussion in Stockholm. Bessent explained that the talks involve extensive preparation and multiple rounds of meetings, with both sides building rapport over time. He noted that while the meetings have become more comprehensive, any decisions regarding extensions of trade deadlines are pending President Trump's approval. Bessent emphasized that President Trump retains the final authority on all trade deals and that recommendations will be presented to him for a decision.

Treasury Sec. Bessent: Trump has 'final say' on all trade deals

Brian, thank you very much. And yes, we are here with Scott Besson. Mr. Treasury Secretary, thank you so much for doing this and being live on CNBC. Really appreciate your time today. Good to see you. Good to be here in Stockholm. Take us behind the scenes, if you could, covering these things as we reporters travel around the world following you guys. It's sort of a black box. We don't know what happens inside that room. We occasionally get the handout picture. How are these talks actually structured? What happens inside the room? Do you have sort of bullet points from both sides that each side agrees to bring up in advance? Does each side make a speech to each other? Bring us in the room. Well, there's a lot of pre-games, so a lot of preparation on both sides in terms of what do we want to talk about? What would we like to accomplish? With the Chinese, there were 75 of them in their delegation, 15 of us. We start out in a very large room, probably 12 or 15 on each side of the table. As you said, there tends to be a bit of speech reading. There's a little back and forth on that. Then there's a discussion. We have various topics. But the real work gets done. We break down into smaller groups of two and two, so Ambassador Jameson, myself, Vice Premier Hu Li Feng, and then they actually had two, a Deputy Trade Minister and a Deputy Finance Minister, and then the translators. And then Vice Premier Feng and I spent some time alone with the translators. And do you go into breakout rooms to discuss among just the American side what the Chinese have proposed and then come back? Or is it all done in the same room together? Well, Ambassador Greer and I have been doing a lot of trade deals. And we've done a lot of prep in advance. This was our third meeting with this Chinese team. So we've built up some level of personal rapport. We also, I can tell you that London built on Geneva, Stockholm built on London and Geneva. So we have an arc that is getting better. This meeting, we were able to discuss more of the big economic frameworks, whereas Geneva and London were much more specific meetings. I think the market really expected that what we would see here is an extension of that August 12th deadline. That was sort of a low bar for these talks. People thought, if they can kick the can another 90 days and keep the truce in place that happened back in London, that's basically a win for Stockholm. Did you agree to kick that can down the road? Or is that pending President Trump's approval? Well, it's pending President Trump's approval. He has final say on all the trade deals. I spoke to him right before I came in with you. I'm going to see him with Ambassador Greer tomorrow. And he'll have the final decision. I think our Chinese counterparts have jumped the gun a little and said that we do have an extension. I can say that the meetings were very far-reaching, robust, and highly satisfactory. And what will you recommend to President Trump if you can share it with us? Will you recommend that he extend that pause? Well, we're just going to give him the facts, and then he'll decide.

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Zaporizhzhia

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Treasury Sec. Bessent: Trump has 'final say' on all trade deals

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