China must fix fentanyl flow before US trade talks, senator says

Bloomberg News on Mar 23, 2025

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China needs to take action on stopping the flow of fentanyl precursors to the U.S. before further talks on trade, according to a Donald Trump ally in the Senate who met with top officials in Beijing over the weekend.

“It’ll be difficult to have any conversation about tariffs and non-tariff barriers until the fentanyl precursor issue is resolved,” Steve Daines, a Montana Republican, said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg News on Sunday.

Daines — who was an intermediary for Trump during his first-term U.S.-China trade war — met in Beijing with Chinese leaders including Premier Li Qiang, Vice Premier He Lifeng and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ma Zhaoxu. He said the Chinese side understands the U.S.’s request to not just slow but to stop the flow of fentanyl precursors to the U.S.

“President Trump’s position was heard loud and clear and the Chinese received that,” Daines said. “They understood it and we’re hopeful that we’ll see decisive actions taken to stop the flow of these precursors.”

Trump has ramped up a trade fight with China since returning to office, imposing a fresh 10% tariff on Chinese goods in February and adding another 10% in March. China retaliated with levies on a slew of U.S. farm products and suspended soybean imports from three U.S. entities.

Chinese officials say the U.S. hasn’t outlined detailed steps expected to remedy its role in the illegal fentanyl trade, which Trump cited as the reason for tariffs. Trump’s team rejects that assertion, saying they expect the People’s Daily newspaper to run a front-page article condemning the fentanyl trade and Beijing to hand the death penalty to smugglers.

Daines said the next step will be conversations between the two administrations and a potential meeting between President Xi Jinping and Trump before the end of the year.

“There’s a desire from both sides to have the high-level meeting. There’s just isn’t a date yet,” he said.

Xi Visit

The U.S. president has repeatedly signaled a willingness to meet Xi, saying last week that the Chinese leader will visit Washington in the “not too distant future,” though Beijing responded by saying it had “no information” to share.

Li said during his meeting with Daines on Sunday that no country’s development and prosperity can be achieved by imposing tariffs, but only by opening up and cooperation, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. Li reiterated that there is no winner in a trade war, and said that he hoped the U.S. and China can communicate frankly, build trust and deepen practical cooperation.

Daines, who worked in China and Hong Kong in the 1990s as an executive for Procter & Gamble Co., was joined in his meeting with Li by top U.S. executives visiting Beijing for the annual China Development Forum. They included FedEx Corp. CEO Raj Subramaniam and Boeing Co. Senior Vice President Brendan Nelson, along with top officials from Cargill Inc., Pfizer Inc. and Qualcomm Inc.

In addition to fentanyl, Daines said he also raised the issue of expired export licenses for U.S. beef producers that require renewal.

Daines also said he’d like to arrange a bipartisan delegation of U.S. senators to China later this year after David Perdue is confirmed as ambassador to the country. Perdue once worked in Singapore and Hong Kong helping American firms source cheap labor in Asian countries before switching to politics.

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(With assistance from Colum Murphy and Philip Glamann.)