Bessent mentioned seven price floor areas in a CNBC interview but did not name them.
Price Floors Across a Range of Industries
The discussion of price floors is in relation to the US trade war with China, especially rare earth metals.
However, it’s not just rare earths.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said “We’re going to set price floors and the forward buying to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. And we’re going to do it across a range of industries.”
CNBC reports Trump administration will set price floors across range of industries to combat China, Bessent says
“When you are facing a nonmarket economy like China, then you have to exercise industrial policy,” Bessent told Sara Eisen at CNBC’s Invest in America Forum in Washington, D.C.
“So we’re going to set price floors and the forward buying to make sure that this doesn’t happen again and we’re going to do it across a range of industries,” the Treasury secretary said, without naming specific industries the administration was looking at beyond rare earths.
China last week announced sweeping new restrictions on rare earth exports ahead of an expected meeting between President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump in South Korea later this month. Trump has threatened to slap China with additional 100% tariffs in response.
The U.S. could take equity stakes in other companies in the wake of Beijing’s rare earth restrictions, Bessent told CNBC.
The Trump administration will not take stakes in nonstrategic industries, Bessent said. “We do have to be very careful not to overreach,” he said.
What’s Strategic?
Please recall Trump labeled movies a national security threat.
With Trump, even the absurd is strategic.
“We have things that are more powerful than the rare earth export controls that the Chinese want to put on,” said Bessent.
Uh… like what? And if so, why back down?
U.S. to Take Control of More Companies to Counter China
The New York Times reports U.S. to Take Control of More Companies to Counter China
The Trump administration is seeking to counter new economic measures from China by exerting more control over American companies in key strategic sectors, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday.
The approach marks a new era of industrial policy in the United States, a contrast to how policymakers have traditionally valued free markets and open investment. But as China’s dominance over the production of rare-earth minerals and battery technology grows, President Trump wants to take a page out of Beijing’s economic strategy. By taking more stakes in American companies that specialize in areas deemed critical to national security, the Trump administration aims to exert more control over what they produce. The goal is for the U.S. to become less reliant on China for sensitive technology that it has been using as leverage in trade negotiations.
On Friday, Mr. Trump responded by threatening to put an additional 100 percent tariff on products from China on Nov. 1 and cancel an upcoming meeting with China’s leader, Xi Jinping. After the announcements caused the stock market to plummet, Mr. Trump quickly qualified his statements. He said he might meet Mr. Xi anyway and wrote on social media on Sunday, “Don’t worry about China, it will all be fine!”
The Treasury secretary pointed to China’s announcement last week of new export controls on rare-earth minerals as a reason the United States must exert more state control over corporations. “When we get an announcement like this week with China on the rare earths, you realize we have to be self-sufficient, or we have to be sufficient with our allies,” Mr. Bessent said.
Mr. Bessent said that the Trump administration had identified seven industries that it considered of strategic importance where the United States could seek to exert more government control. He pointed specifically to the defense sector, where in some cases the U.S. government is the largest or only customer of certain companies, and said that the administration could insist that companies spend more money on research and less on stock buybacks.
“I do think our defense companies are woefully behind in terms of deliveries,” Mr. Bessent said.
The United States would use “price floors” and “forward buying” across a “range of industries,” he added, to ensure that China does not dominate other sectors the way it has with the processing and refining of rare earths.
The push for greater government control over the private sector is a policy that he has criticized in the past.
Last year, Mr. Bessent delivered a speech at the Manhattan Institute deriding the Biden administration’s subsidies of strategic sectors such as semiconductors as “central planning.” At a news conference at the Treasury Department on Wednesday, Mr. Bessent scolded China for deploying similar tactics.
“They are a state economy,” Mr. Bessent said. “We are not going to let a group of bureaucrats in Beijing try to manage the global supply chains.”
The countries have also clashed over a U.S. move to impose fees on Chinese-owned ships docking in American ports, a policy U.S. officials say is geared at revitalizing American shipbuilding. Non-Chinese shipping lines must also pay the fees when they send Chinese-built ships to American ports. Those went into effect on Tuesday.
Agreement With Bessent
“When we get an announcement like this week with China on the rare earths, you realize we have to be self-sufficient, or we have to be sufficient with our allies,” Mr. Bessent said.
Q: I totally agree. But what is Trump’s approach?
A: Terrorize allies with tariffs and threats, especially Canada and Mexico.
I propose the US expand trade with allies. Specifically, the US should work out a deal for Canada to produce rare earths and Mexico to process them.
Canada has vast areas of land to mine and Mexico has cheap labor. Instead, Trump has punished allies as much as China.
“Our relationship will never again be what it was,” said Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Irony of the Day
“They are a state economy,” Bessent said. Note the the direction Trump is taking the US.
Here is a list of US government involvement.
Trump’s Takeover of US Businesses
- The government has a 10% equity stake in Intel (INTC)
- The government has a 15% equity stake in MP Materials (MP)
- The government has a 10% equity stake in Lithium Americas (LAC)
- The government has a 10% equity stake in Trilogy Metals (TMC)
- The government has a “golden share” in US Steel Corporation (USS)
- After the launch of the $TRUMP memecoin, Trump’s wife Melania launched her own meme coin, $Melania on January 19, 2025
- Nvidia (NVDA) agreed to pay 15% of revenues from chip sales to China to the U.S.
- AMD agreed to pay 15% of revenues from chip sales to China to the U.S.
- Trump started a government website for prescriptions called TrumpRx.gov.
- Trump wants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to subsidize homebuilders
“We do have to be very careful not to overreach,” said Bessent.
OK, what constitutes “overreach”?
Movies Are Now a National Security Threat
On May 4, 2025 I commented Movies Are Now a National Security Threat, 100 Percent Tariffs Announced
Hooray for Hollywood!
Just when you thought national security threats could not get any stupider, Trump says Hollywood ‘dying’; orders 100% tariff on non-US movies to save Hollywood.
Subsidize Home Builders
Please note Trump and Pulte Now Want Fannie Mae to Subsidize Home Builders
Trump’s economic illiteracy and disrespect of moral hazards have no bounds.
US and Canada Have a New Spat Over Auto Tariffs
On October 12, 2025, I noted US and Canada Have a New Spat Over Auto Tariffs
“He [Canadian Prime Minister Mak Carney] wants to make cars, we want to make cars, and we’re in competition,” Trump said in the Oval Office as he sat next to Carney. “And the advantage we have is, we have this massive market.”
Trump’s Myopic View of Trade
Trump views trade as having a winner and a loser.
But other than coercion or force, both sides believe they benefit from a deal or there is no deal.
The US could be and should be expanding our relationship with Canada and Mexico. Instead, Trump destroyed it.
Meanwhile Bessent says “we have to be sufficient with our allies.”
How about practicing that instead of punishing them?
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