Cantwell Urges Treasury Secretary Bessent to Pursue More Market Opportunities for Washington Sales to China

Cantwell Urges Treasury Secretary Bessent to Pursue More Market Opportunities for Washington Sales to China

During a Finance Committee hearing, Cantwell points out huge market opportunity in China for key PNW sectors - aerospace & seafood

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, pressed U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on opportunities to open more markets for American goods in China.

"I really want to ask you where you see this landscape now with China, having been very active in the Chinese meetings, and this issue of trying to move on from the tariff debate and get the Chinese into a manufacturing purchase -- specifically of aviation aircraft," Sen. Cantwell said, citing a smaller-than-expected order of Boeing jets from China, announced by President Donald Trump last month.

Sec. Bessent responded: "Thus far we have seen a willingness by the Chinese. They are very interested in the Boeing purchases. They agreed to [purchase] 200 airplanes during the [President's] visit. We will see if they commit to a larger number when Xi Jinping arrives in Washington […] We have formed a Board of Trade, and we will be looking at noncritical industries or noncritical things that we can trade with each other tariff-free."

Sen. Cantwell: "How will that work? I mean, I'm for the tariff-free part, for sure. [The Pacific Northwest ranks] very high in manufacturing, like aerospace, but we also have a lot of seafood in the Northwest. China consumes something like 45% of the world's seafood, and I guarantee you that market isn't open wide enough for our products. So, how would the Board of Trade help us with that?"

Sec. Bessent: "That's exactly what it's going to do. It's going to say, if we pick a number […] What are $30 billion of things [in] non-critical industries, non-critical things - fireworks, Halloween costumes, very low-end consumer items that we do not want to reshore, that we want to buy from them, and what are things that they would like to buy from us - the seafood, maybe energy - and then we will both agree that that basket on either side will have no tariffs."

Video of their exchange is HERE; a transcript is HERE.

Sen. Cantwell has been a steadfast champion of opening new markets for American manufacturers overseas, and of defending American businesses from the Trump Administration's damaging tariffs.

In February, she sent a letter to Sec. Bessent demanding a "detailed explanation" of how the administration intends to refund the hundreds of billions of dollars owed to American businesses after the Supreme Court ruled that some of President Trump's tariffs were illegally implemented.

In September, Sen. Cantwell joined nearly 50 small business owners on the steps of the Supreme Court to push back against Trump's reckless tariff policies. In April 2025, Sen. Cantwell joined small business owners at the Port of Seattle to sound the alarm on how disastrous these policies are for Washington state businesses and consumers.

Immediately following President Trump's April 2, 2025, 'Liberation Day' tariffs, Senators Cantwell and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) introduced the bipartisan Trade Review Act to reaffirm Congress' key role in setting and approving U.S. trade policy. The Trade Review Act of 2025, modeled after the War Powers Resolution of 1973, would reestablish limits on the president's ability to impose unilateral tariffs without the approval of Congress.