After meeting Xi, Trump lowers tariffs on China

Gyeongju: United States President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to call off a mutual escalation in their countries’ trade war, lowering the temperature in a heated confrontation that has threatened to upend the global economy.

Trump and Xi sealed a one-year trade truce on Thursday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea, where the two leaders met face-to-face for the first time since 2019. But while Trump and Xi’s agreement offered a reprieve to businesses unsettled by months of back-and-forth trade salvoes, it did little to roll back existing trade barriers and left numerous points of contention between the sides unresolved.

Under the deal, China agreed to defer its planned export controls on rare earths, while the US will drop a threatened 100 percent tariff on Chinese goods.

Trump said he would also lower a 20 percent fentanyl-related tariff to 10 percent after Xi agreed to “work very hard” to stem flows of the synthetic opiate. “I believe he is going to work very hard to stop the death that is coming in,” Trump said on Air Force One after departing South Korea.

Trump, who hailed his 90-minute meeting with Xi as “amazing”, said the issue of rare earths had been “settled” under the agreement, which he said would be renegotiated every year. “There’s no roadblock at all on rare earths – that will hopefully disappear from our vocabulary for a little while,” Trump said.