US and China Strike Trade Deal
Donald Trump said that the United States and China have signed a trade agreement to speed up the supply of rare earth elements to the United States.
The Gaze reports on this with reference to the Financial Times and Bloomberg.
‘We just signed an agreement with China yesterday,’ the US president said at the White House on Thursday, without providing any details.
A White House representative said that the US and China ‘have agreed on an additional understanding regarding the framework for implementing the Geneva agreement,’ referring to the trade negotiations that the countries held in May, when they first agreed on a trade truce.
Two people familiar with the situation told the publication on Thursday that Washington and Beijing appeared to have put in writing what had previously been discussed but not included in the official document.
The Geneva agreement provided for a significant reduction in tariffs against each other for 90 days while they tried to reach a comprehensive trade agreement. However, it fell through due to disagreements over Chinese exports of rare earth metals and US export controls.
US Trade Minister Howard Lutnick also confirmed on Thursday that they had finalised the agreement that was initially reached in Geneva. ‘This agreement was signed and sealed two days ago,’ he said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.
According to Bloomberg, China has confirmed the trade agreement with the US. They stated that in recent days they had finalised the details of a trade framework agreement with the US, confirming US Trade Representative Howard Lutnick's words about the agreements reached between the two countries.
In a statement on Friday, a representative of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said that Beijing would continue to issue permits for the export of controlled goods.
According to Lutnick, the agreement with China was signed two days ago and confirms the terms agreed upon during negotiations between Beijing and Washington — in particular, China's commitment to ensure the supply of rare earth elements needed for the production of wind turbines, jet aircraft and other high-tech products.
In its statement, the Ministry of Commerce of the PRC noted that Beijing ‘will consider and approve reasonable applications for the export of controlled goods in accordance with the law,’ while the American side, in turn, will lift restrictive measures (details of which were not provided).
Referring to a telephone conversation between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on 5 June, the ministry called for joint efforts to ensure the stable development of economic and trade relations between the two countries.
As is known, the Trump administration is working to reach large-scale trade agreements with numerous partners ahead of 9 July, when the ‘reciprocal’ tariffs announced by Trump in April will be reintroduced.
These tariffs, which reach 50% for most US trading partners, were temporarily reduced to 10% for 90 days to allow foreign countries to negotiate. Since then, US officials have been engaged in intense negotiations with countries such as India, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan and EU countries to reach a final settlement. So far, only the United Kingdom has reached a trade agreement with the US, while China has secured a 10% reduction in ‘reciprocal’ tariffs. Trump also left in place additional 20% tariffs on all Chinese imports, citing Beijing's failure to slow the flow of fentanyl drug precursors from China.
In July, the renewed trade truce between the US and China, concluded in London, left unresolved the key area of export restrictions related to US national security, concerning the supply of key materials for the production of missiles and fighter jets.
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