47% China tariffs, rare earths, soybeans: What Trump, Xi said about their meeting and what’s next
The issues of Taiwan, chipmaker Nvidia’s Blackwell AI chip, were not discussed
[BUSAN, South Korea] US President Donald Trump said he had struck a deal to reduce tariffs on China to 47 per cent in exchange for Beijing resuming US soybean purchases, keeping rare earths exports flowing and cracking down on the illicit trade of fentanyl.
He said there will be an extendable one-year deal on the supply of crucial rare earths, and that it would be renegotiated annually.
Xi said China has reached a consensus with the United States on economic and trade issues, state media reported.
“The economic and trade teams of the two countries exchanged in-depth views on important economic and trade issues and reached a consensus on resolving them,” Xi said, according to state news agency Xinhua.
“Both teams should refine and finalise follow-up work as soon as possible, maintain and implement the consensus and provide tangible results to set minds at ease about the economies of China, the United States and the world,” he added.
China and the United States should not fall into a “vicious cycle of retaliation” against each other, Xi also said, according to Xinhua.
BT in your inbox
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
Trump also said his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping was a “great success” and that he would head to China in April for new talks.
“I’ll be going to China in April and he’ll be coming here sometime after that, whether it’s in Florida, Palm Beach or Washington, DC,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.
On soybeans, fentanyl-related tariffs
The deal also included the US halving fentanyl-related tariffs on Chinese goods to 10 per cent effective immediately, said Trump.
SEE ALSO
China also pledged to purchase “tremendous” amounts of American soybeans, according to Trump. Beijing will start buying the oilseed immediately, he said, without providing any details on volumes.
The US trade with China was worth more than US$12 billion last year, and the lack of buying from the Asian nation has hurt American farmers and given Beijing a key bargaining chip during trade talks. Prior to the summit, China signalled some goodwill by making its first purchases of US supplies this season.
His remarks after the face-to-face talks with Xi in the South Korean city of Busan, their first since 2019, marked the finale of Trump’s whirlwind Asia trip on which he also touted trade breakthroughs with South Korea, Japan and South-east Asian nations.
What was not discussed: Nvidia’s Blackwell chip, Taiwan
Trump also said he did not discuss chipmaker Nvidia’s state-of-art Blackwell artificial intelligence (AI) chip during talks with Xi.
However, semiconductors had been discussed and China is “going to be talking to Nvidia and others about taking chips,” but he added: “We’re not talking about the Blackwell.”
“I said (to Xi) that’s really between you and Nvidia, but we’re sort of the arbitrator or the referee,” he said.
A day earlier, Trump had praised the Blackwell chip as “super-duper”, adding he might speak to Xi about that - comments that likely helped Nvidia make history as the first company to reach a $5 trillion valuation.
The extent to which China has access to Nvidia’s chips has been a key point of friction between the U.S. and China.
Washington currently imposes export controls on sales of Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips to China, seeking to limit its tech progress, particularly in any applications that could help its military.
Nvidia has been working on a new chip for China based on its latest Blackwell architecture that will be more powerful than the H20 model it is currently allowed to sell there, sources have previously said.
Taiwan was also not discussed in his meeting with Xi, Trump added. Taiwan “never came up”. “That was not discussed actually.”
The meeting, which took place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, lasted nearly two hours. Trump shook hands and escorted Xi to his car before the US president was given a red carpet send off at the airport.
Trump repeatedly talked up the prospect of reaching agreement with Xi since US negotiators on Oct 26 said they had agreed a framework with China that will avoid 100 per cent US tariffs on Chinese goods and achieve a deferral of China’s export curbs on rare earths, a sector it dominates.
But with both countries increasingly willing to play hardball over areas of economic and geopolitical competition, many questions remain about how long any trade detente may last. REUTERS, BLOOMBERG, AFP
Share with us your feedback on BT's products and services
