Trump, Xi agree to defuse US-China trade tensions
US President Donald Trump said Thursday he agreed with Chinese President Xi Jinping on steps to defuse bilateral trade tensions stemming from such issues as Beijing’s rare earth export controls and American tariff over fentanyl during their meeting in South Korea.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Washington that China will pause for one year the implementation of its new rare earth controls essential for high-tech manufacturing.
The US leader also said his administration’s 20-percent extra tariff on Chinese goods imposed earlier this year over fentanyl, the leading cause of overdose deaths in the United States, will be halved to 10 percent.
Trump has repeatedly accused Beijing of taking insufficient steps to stem the flow of fentanyl into the United States. Precursor chemicals made in China are reportedly used to illicitly produce the powerful opioid.
Tit for tat
Xi agreed to work hard to halt the inflow of fentanyl to the United States, Trump said.
The US president also said China’s soybean purchases will resume soon. In their tit-for-tat trade war since early this year, China has stopped buying soybeans from the United States for the past several months.
Trump said he will visit China in April next year, adding he did not talk about Taiwan, a self-ruled island that China claims as part of its territory, with Xi.
The US leader has rarely discussed the democratic island that Washington supports militarily from a security perspective.
The gathering in Busan was the first in-person meeting between Trump and Xi since the American leader returned to the White House in January.
It took place before Trump wraps up his three-nation Asia trip and as Xi arrived in South Korea to attend an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in Gyeongju in the country’s southeast.
‘Partners and friends’
At the outset of the meeting, Xi said China and the United States “should be partners and friends” even though it is “normal for the two leading economies of the world to have frictions now and then.”
The Chinese leader said he always believes China’s development “goes hand in hand” with Trump’s vision of making America great again. “Our two countries are fully able to help each other succeed and prosper together,” Xi said.
To pave the way for the summit between the two leaders, high-level officials struck a framework agreement in Malaysia last weekend, with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggesting an additional 100-percent US tariff Trump had threatened to impose on Chinese imports starting Saturday would be averted.
The United States and China slapped retaliatory tariffs on each other’s goods earlier this year. Still, they agreed in May to temporarily reduce them from triple-digit rates, and later extended the pause through Nov. 10.
The Treasury chief has also hinted that the current 90-day trade truce is likely to be extended.
