US May Decouple From China if Rare Earth Dispute Persists: Bessent

Remarking on the ongoing U.S.–China rare earth export dispute, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said during an Oct. 15 news conference that if Beijing refuses to act as a reliable trading partner, the United States and its allies may have no choice but to decouple.

While emphasizing that decoupling—severing trade ties entirely or nearly so—is not Washington’s desired outcome, Bessent said it could become unavoidable given China’s posture in the current standoff over rare earth supplies.