Trump-Xi meeting: US President says rare earths deal and tariff reduction agreed in crucial trade talks | Donald Trump
Donald Trump described crucial trade talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea as “amazing”, saying their dispute over the supply of rare earths had been settled and that he would visit China in April.
In early statements, Chinese official media quoted Xi as saying that a “consensus” had been reached with Trump on trade issues, and that there were good prospects for cooperation in the areas of trade, immigration and fraud.
After their meeting, the two shook hands and Trump immediately boarded Air Force One back to Washington. He later told reporters that the Chinese leader had agreed to work “hard” to prevent the production of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid drug that has caused a high number of deaths among Americans. In return, Trump said he would reduce tariffs related to fentanyl from 20% to 10%, thus reducing overall tariffs from 57% to 47%.
Trump had indicated that their talks in the city of Busan might last three or four hours, but the two men parted after an hour and 40 minutes, as Xi prepared to attend the APEC leadership summit, which begins on Friday in neighboring Jeonju. However, Trump described the meeting as a 12 on a scale of one to 10.
The US President said that China will end its restrictions on exports of rare earth elements and will buy American soybeans. He added that the rare metals agreement will last for a year and will be negotiated annually with the hope of renewing it.
Reuters reported the day before the talks that China had purchased its first shipments of U.S. soybeans in several months.
“All the rare earths have been settled,” Trump said. “And that for the world, all over the world, you could say this was a global situation, not just the situation in the United States. There is absolutely no barrier in terms of rare earths. Hopefully this will disappear from our vocabulary for some time.”
The US President said they agreed to work together on Ukraine, adding that the war had “emerged strongly” as an issue. “We’ve talked about it for a long time, and we’ll work together to see if we can get something going,” he said. He acknowledged that China buys a lot of Russian oil, but added that this issue was not actually discussed.
Another issue that was not discussed is Taiwan. Earlier, the two men ignored a question about autonomous democracy, amid concerns in Taipei that Trump may be willing to make concessions to President Xi, who has pledged to “reunify” it with the mainland.
Ahead of the talks with Xi – their first face-to-face meeting in six years – Trump predicted he would have a “successful meeting” with Xi as the two men began the highly anticipated trade talks.
Speaking to the media at the beginning of their meeting at Gimhae Air Base, Trump said: “We will have a very successful meeting.” But he added: “He’s a tough negotiator – and that’s not good,” before patting the Chinese leader on the back.
Xi likened the relationship between the United States and China to an ocean-going ship, and said the two countries should “stay on the right track” and “be partners and friends.”
“The world faces many difficult problems… China and the United States can jointly shoulder our responsibility as two major countries and work together to achieve more great and tangible things for the benefit of our two countries and the whole world.”
As they and their delegations sat across from each other at the negotiating table, Xi noted that he and Trump had not met for several years — their last summit was in 2019 — but had spoken on the phone and exchanged letters since Trump’s return to the White House.
Xi said he and Trump “do not always agree with each other,” adding that “it is normal for the world’s two largest economies to have disagreements from time to time.”
He added: “A few days ago… our economic and trade teams reached basic consensus on addressing our key concerns and made encouraging progress. I stand ready to continue working with you to build a solid foundation for China and the United States.”
The optimism in Busan was in stark contrast to recent exchanges of bellicose rhetoric on trade, which threatened to put the United States and China on an economic collision course, with potentially dire consequences for the global economy.
The trade war was renewed this month after Beijing proposed significantly expanding its restrictions on exports of rare earth minerals, which are vital components in the manufacture of everything from smartphones to fighter jets.
In response, Trump vowed to respond with additional 100% tariffs on Chinese exports, and with other steps including potential restrictions on exports to China that are manufactured using American software.
Trump hinted this week that he would reduce US tariffs on Chinese goods in exchange for Beijing’s commitment to halt the flow of ingredients needed to make fentanyl.
Minutes before his meeting with Xi, Trump said in a social media post that he had ordered the Pentagon to begin nuclear weapons tests with China and Russia. But he did not respond to a reporter’s question about the decision when he and Xi began their summit.
“Due to other nations’ testing programs, I have instructed the War Department to begin testing our nuclear weapons on an equal footing,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that specifically referred to Russia and China.