WASHINGTON/LONDON: A deal getting the fragile truce in the US-China trade war back on track is done, US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, after negotiators from Washington and Beijing agreed on a framework covering tariff rates.
The deal also removes Chinese export restrictions on rare earth minerals and allows Chinese students access to American universities.
Trump took to his social media platform to offer some of the first details to emerge from two days of marathon talks held in London that had, in the words of US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, put “meat on the bones” of an agreement reached last month in Geneva to ease bilateral retaliatory tariffs that had reached crushing triple-digit levels.
“Our deal with China is done, subject to final approval with President Xi and me,” Trump said on the Truth Social platform. “Full magnets, and any necessary rare earths, will be supplied, up front, by China.
Likewise, we will provide to China what was agreed to, including Chinese students using our colleges and universities (which has always been good with me!). We are getting a total of 55% tariffs, China is getting 10%.”
A White House official said the 55% represents the sum of a baseline 10% “reciprocal” tariff Trump has imposed on goods imported from nearly all US trading partners; 20% on all Chinese imports because of punitive measures Trump has imposed on China, Mexico and Canada associated with his accusation that the three facilitate the flow of the opioid fentanyl into the US; and finally pre-existing 25% levies on imports from China that were put in place during Trump’s first term in the White House.
Lutnick said the 55% rate for Chinese imports is now fixed and unalterable. Asked on Wednesday on CNBC if the tariff levels on China would not change, he said: “You can definitely say that.”
Still, many specifics of the deal and details for how it would be implemented remain unclear. China’s commerce ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment and more information.
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