President Donald Trump said his face-to-face meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping was “amazing” and both countries had agreed to certain concessions to ease trade tensions, including a reduction of the fentanyl-related tariffs on China and a pause on Beijing export controls on critical rare earth minerals.
KEY FACTS
- The in-person meeting between Trump and Xi occurred in the Busan city of South Korea during the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, and it took approximately one hour and forty minutes.
- On board Air Force One, Trump heading back to Washington, told reporters that it was an incredible meeting and he stated that Xi Jinping is a great leader of a very powerful, very strong nation.
- The president noted that he will reduce his fentanyl related tariffs on China to 10 per cent. at once because Xi agrees to increase his crackdown on the transportation of precursor chemicals used to make the synthetic opioid.
- Trump also announced that China has accepted to suspend intended exportation of important rare-earth metals at least one year. The president then attached that China has agreed to purchase enormous quantities of the soy beans and other farm items that will be purchased instantly.
- A few hours later in a Truth Social post, Trump wrote: “President Xi approved China in purchasing large volumes of Soybeans, Sorghum, and other Farm products.
WHAT ELSE did TRUMP say of the MEETing?
The meeting of Trump and Xi was mainly about trade and not about any significant geopolitical concerns. Nevertheless, the president explained that the current war in Ukraine was raised very high, and the two leaders talked about it a long time. Trump said: We both will cooperate to see whether we can get something done. In the opinion of both of us, the sides are locked-in and fighting and sometimes you must leave them to fight, I suppose. Trump, nevertheless, claimed that there was nothing in the discussion of both sides regarding Russian oil within the war on Ukraine. Trump, in response to the question on the Taiwan problem, replied that it never came up. Taiwan never came up. It’s not discussed, actually.”
WHAT of AI Chips and Nvidia?
Trump provided little information when questioned regarding the topic of semiconductors and replied: “We did talk about chips…and they will be discussing taking chips and we make great chips. Trump confirmed that he will speak to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and added that further negotiations would be made between China and Nvidia, the U.S. being the referee or the arbitrator. However, Trump pointed out that the most sophisticated Blackwell chips of Nvidia, which America has banned the export of them to China, were not addressed. It was also discussed by U.S Trade Representative Jamieson Greer who stated: The president was saying that there were so many chips we have already sold to China, a lot of advanced chips, and then he mentioned that Nvidia will go to China and come you know what we can do. The Blackwell chips of course were not being talked about.
Are the U.S and China close to a trade deal?
On querying Trump on the timing of the time when he believes the U.S will be in a position to sign a trade deal with China, Trump replied: I think pretty soon. We have not about too many big stumbling blocks…we have a deal now. We will renegotiate the deal every year, but I believe the deal will last long time long after the year.
WHAT have the Chinese officials said?
The Ministry of Commerce of China released a statement on the meeting of Xi with Trump, and affirmed that it was suspending its rare earths exportation of its control actions that it had implemented earlier this month over a year. The commerce ministry also announced that China was also extending a suspension of its 24 percent “reciprocal tariffs” on U.S. good to another year. According to the statement, the both parties had come to a consensus of collaborating in the control of fentanyl, expansion of agricultural trade and managing some individual enterprise cases. It was also stated that both parties have also decided to collaborate closely to address the Tik Tok problem.
