*

Trump optimistic of deal when he meets China's Xi Thursday

*

Chinese official says 'preliminary consensus' reached

*

Bessent says China to delay rare earths curbs for a year

*

China to resume buying US soybeans, Bessent says

(Adds quote from Chinese negotiator, paragraph 11; details on

China's domination of rare earths, paragraph 14)

By Xinghui Kok

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Top Chinese and U.S.

economic officials on Sunday hashed out the framework of a trade

deal for U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi

Jinping to decide on later this week that would pause steeper

American tariffs and Chinese rare earths export controls, U.S.

officials said.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said talks on the

sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur had eliminated the

threat of Trump's 100% tariffs on Chinese imports starting

November 1. Bessent also said he expects China to delay

implementation of its rare earth minerals and magnets licensing

regime by a year while the policy is reconsidered.

Chinese officials were more circumspect about the talks and

offered no details about the outcome of the meetings.

Trump and Xi are due to meet on Thursday on the sidelines of

the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju,

South Korea, to sign off on the terms. While the White House has

officially announced the highly anticipated Trump-Xi talks,

China has yet to confirm that the two leaders will meet.

"I think we have a very successful framework for the leaders

to discuss on Thursday," Bessent told reporters after he and

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met with Chinese Vice

Premier He Lifeng and top trade negotiator Li Chenggang for

their fifth round of in-person discussions since May.

Bessent said he anticipates that a tariff truce with China will

be extended beyond its November 10 expiration date, and that

China will revive substantial purchases of U.S. soybeans after

buying none in September while favouring soybeans from Brazil

and Argentina.

U.S. soybean farmers "will feel very good about what's going

on both for this season and the coming seasons for several

years" once the deal's terms are announced, Bessent told the ABC

program "This Week."

Greer told the "Fox News Sunday" program that both sides

agreed to pause some punitive actions and found "a path forward

where we can have more access to rare earths from China, we can

try to balance out our trade deficit with sales from the United

States."

TRUMP EXPECTS A DEAL, CHINESE SUGGEST CAUTION

China's Li Chenggang said the two sides reached a

"preliminary consensus" and will next go through their

respective internal approval processes.

"The U.S. position has been tough, whereas China has been

firm in defending its own interests and rights," Li said through

an interpreter. "We have experienced very intense consultations

and engaged in constructive exchanges in exploring solutions and

arrangements to address these concerns."

Trump arrived in Malaysia on Sunday for a summit of the

Association of Southeast Asian Nations, his first stop in a

five-day Asia tour that is expected to culminate in Thursday's

face-to-face with Xi in South Korea.

After the weekend talks, Trump struck a positive tone,

saying: "I think we're going to have a deal with China".

Trump had threatened new 100% tariffs on Chinese goods and

other trade curbs starting on November 1, in retaliation for

China's expanded export controls on rare earth magnets and

minerals.

China controls more than 90% of the world's supply for the

materials, which are essential for high-tech manufacturing from

electric vehicles to semiconductors and missiles. The export

controls and Trump's threatened retaliation would disrupt a

delicate six-month truce under which China and the U.S. reduced

tariffs that had quickly escalated to triple-digit rates on each

side.

The U.S. and Chinese officials said that, in addition to

rare earths, they discussed trade expansion, the U.S. fentanyl

crisis, U.S. port entrance fees and the transfer of TikTok to

U.S. ownership control.

Bessent told NBC's "Meet the Press" program that the two

sides have to iron out details of the TikTok deal, allowing

Trump and Xi to "consummate the transaction" in South Korea.

TALKING POINTS WITH XI INCLUDE SOYBEANS, TAIWAN

On the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit, Trump hinted at

possible meetings with Xi in China and the United States.

"We've agreed to meet. We're going to meet them later in

China, and we're going to meet in the U.S., in either Washington

or at Mar-a-Lago," Trump said.

Among Trump's talking points with Xi are Chinese purchases of

U.S. soybeans, concerns around democratically governed Taiwan,

which China views as its own territory, and the release of

jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai.

The detention of the founder of the now-defunct

pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily has become the most

high-profile example of China's crackdown on rights in Hong

Kong.

Trump also said he will seek China's help in U.S. dealings with

Moscow, as Russia's war in Ukraine grinds on.

Tensions between the world's two largest economies flared in

the past few weeks as a delicate trade truce, reached after a

first round of trade talks in Geneva in May and extended in

August, failed to prevent the United States and China from

hitting each other with more sanctions, export curbs and threats

of stronger retaliatory measures.

China's expanded controls of rare earths exports have caused a

global shortage. That has prompted the United States to consider

a block on software-powered exports to China, from laptops to

jet engines, according to a Reuters report.