President Trump said on Wednesday that the trade deal with China comes hours after the United States and China agreed to revoke some of their punitive measures on each other’s economy and return to the trade armistice that arrived in May.
After two days of marathon negotiations, senior U.S. and China’s senior economic officials are expected to propose a new “framework agreement” to Mr. Trump and top Chinese leader XI Jinping for final approval.
The full details of the agreement were not released immediately, aiming to link to the terms reached by the United States and China last month. The agreement went bankrupt in recent weeks after China continued to limit the shipping of precious rare earth minerals and magnets needed by U.S. manufacturers.
Mr. Trump said Wednesday morning that he supported the latest framework.
In a truth society post, he said China is committed to supplying magnets and rare earth minerals to the United States. He said Chinese students will continue to obtain American universities and universities.
Mr Trump said the tariff rate on Chinese imports would be 55%, while the tariff rate on China would be 10%.
Mr Trump wrote: “The relationships are great, but there are some other details.
Mr. Trump’s support was expressed for hours after Howard Lutnick, a member of the negotiation team of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, said that during the negotiations, U.S. concerns over China’s restrictions on China’s exports to minerals and magnets had been resolved. He also said the U.S. measures taken by these Chinese restrictions will be “reversed in a balanced manner.”
In recent weeks, U.S. officials have tried to put pressure on China by cutting U.S. products and technology exports, including chemicals, aircraft parts and software, and have proposed banning Chinese students from attending U.S. universities.
A person familiar with the negotiations has no right to speak out publicly, saying that China has agreed to start sending U.S. rare earths, and that since the Geneva meeting, the United States will withdraw export controls imposed on Chinese products, both efforts will occur simultaneously.
Mr. Lutnik, with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, will introduce Mr. Trump on Wednesday, the person said.
“We do expect to address the topic of rare earth minerals and magnets in this framework implementation,” Lutnik said.
Mr Greer, who participated in the discussion, said the two sides would maintain regular contact when trying to work through economic differences, and the two sides agreed after the talks in Geneva. But he said no meeting has been scheduled.
Officials met at Lancaster House in London, next to St James’s Palace, in an attempt to resume a truce. People familiar with the negotiations say that negotiations continue until late at night, sometimes becoming increasingly tense and seemingly disintegrating.
Last week, Mr. Trump made a 90-minute call with Mr. Xi Jinping, a direct statement from the two heads of state since returning to the office in January.
The state agreed to a 90-day pause plan for some tariffs agreed in Geneva, which is scheduled to expire in August. Mr Greer said both sides were “motivated” but as additional negotiations proceeded, Mr Trump decided whether to prolong the pause.
Mr Greer also said that a broader trade deal topic has been raised, but the current meeting focused on implementing the agreement reached in Geneva and the calls from both leaders.
China’s official Xinhua News Agency issued a cautious statement saying the two sides have agreed “in principle” as the term used by state media and diplomats to indicate that details have not been resolved. According to Xinhua News Agency, the discussion is “professional, rational, in-depth and frank.” When there are considerable differences, Chinese state media often use the term “candal”.
These countries have sent early but important victories in the Trump administration in the fight against tariff legitimacy.
In Washington, the federal appeals court agreed on Tuesday to allow Mr. Trump to uphold many of these import taxes, a lower court declared illegal in late May. Accommodation will retain the core of the president’s trade agenda, while federal lawyers fight states and businesses that say they are hurt by tariffs Trump has no authority to issue.
U.S. officials said the court’s ruling on tariffs was not proposed in discussions with the Chinese.
Mr. Best, who led the U.S. delegation, returned to Washington on Wednesday night for talks. On China’s side, the negotiations were led by Vice Premier He Lifeng, who is responsible for economic policy.
The U.S. reliance on China on rare earth metals and rare earth magnets provides Beijing with a powerful tool to put pressure on the U.S. economy. After Mr. Trump imposed tariffs on Chinese goods in April, Beijing cut exports of key minerals and magnets, threatening to shut down operations of U.S. manufacturers, defense contractors and others.
The U.S. has a rare earth mine at the mountain pass in California, with little ability to process the rare earth into the needed chemicals and then enter the magnet. Rare earth restrictions prompted the U.S. side to meet with Chinese officials in Geneva last month.
But after that meeting, Trump administration officials were frustrated when transporting rare earth minerals in China and with magnets they made. They accused China of violating the Geneva agreement.
To put pressure on China, U.S. officials cut exports of some U.S. products and technologies to China, including software for making gases such as semiconductors, ethane and butane, as well as nuclear and aerospace components. U.S. officials also recommend banning Chinese students.
It is unclear whether the latest framework will hold, and analysts are skeptical that a broader treaty is coming.
“Two days of negotiations are better than nothing, but frankly, we’ve seen these extended negotiations in the past,” Veda Partners Director of Economic Policy Henrietta Treyz wrote in the study. “It seems like something that’s happening in London to spend a lot of time translating, confirming meaning and reaffirming the frameworks that are being carried out in these negotiations that have made them time-consuming but ultimately maintained a lot of status quo, which seems to be something that’s coming to London.”
Keith Bradsher Beijing report, Tony Romm From Washington.
