Bloomberg Surveillance · Thursday, September 24, 2026
Elizabeth Economy anticipates limited concrete outcomes from the U.S.-China summit, with potential takeaways including a mechanism for consultation on AI safety and a reduction or elimination of tariffs on $30 billion worth of non-security-related consumer goods. She notes that this progress might not match the summit's high level of attention and pageantry.
“I think, again, on AI, I think Treasury Secretary Besant has actually worked really hard to try to set up this mechanism for consultation on a hotline. In case there's some major accident, AI accident in either country or national security breach and some sense of can we work together to prevent that? advanced AI from falling into the hands of rogue actors. So I think that's a takeaway, and it's important. It's going to be small to start off with, but it is an important step forward. Maybe we'll get some progress on the board of trade, reducing or zeroing out tariffs on $ 30 billion worth of goods on each side in non-security-oriented consumer goods. So I think those are going to be the two potential major takeaways.”
“But but does it sort of match up with the attention that this summit is getting with the pageantry that President Trump has sort of put around the summit? I don't think so.”