(MENAFN) Beijing on Monday pressed Washington to “earnestly” implement the agreement reached by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meeting last week in South Korea.

“The outcomes of the recent economic and trade consultations between Chinese and US teams in Kuala Lumpur fully demonstrate that dialogue and cooperation are the right ways to address issues, while threats and pressure will not help resolve them,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a Beijing news briefing.

She called on both nations to “earnestly implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state during their meeting in Busan, and to inject greater stability into China-US economic and trade cooperation as well as the world economy.”

Her comments followed remarks by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who on Sunday warned that the United States could raise tariffs on China if Beijing continues restricting rare-earth exports.

"The Chinese have cornered the market (on rare earths), and unfortunately, at times they proved to be unreliable partners," Bessent stated in a talk show, expressing hope that the US “can depend on them to be more reliable partners."

If not, "we could threaten the tariffs again," he added, emphasizing that Washington has been prepared to use "maximum leverage."

The call for adherence to the Busan agreement comes after Trump and Xi met Thursday in the South Korean port city, where both leaders pledged to maintain stable trade relations and roll back certain tariffs and export restrictions.

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