Washington — President Trump called his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea Thursday “amazing,” and said the two reached agreements on a number of items, including the resumption of U.S. soybean sales to China and a short-term deal for access to rare earth minerals. No documents formalizing the agreements have been released yet, however.
Mr. Trump also said he would trim fentanyl-related tariffs on China. These moves should ease tensions between the two superpowers for now, though the president did not mention any long-term deals had been reached.
Xi has not personally made public statements since the meeting.
Tariff rates on imports from China
Mr. Trump said he agreed to reduce tariffs on Chinese goods by 10%, which he said would bring the rate from 57% to 47%. The president told reporters he expects to sign an agreement on trade “pretty soon,” although he also said he’s likely to renegotiate it in future years.
The president said he’s easing tariffs because China pledged to work with him on the deadly fentanyl crisis. China is the world’s largest exporter of the precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl, which has been a longstanding complaint of the president. Levying 47% tariffs on Chinese imports would still mean China has one of the highest tariff rates.
Mr. Trump also said the additional 100% tariffs on imports from China, which he previously said would take effect Nov. 1, will not be implemented.
Xi and China have not said what they will do to curb fentanyl production.
Rare-earth minerals
Mr. Trump said Beijing would delay its recently announced export restrictions on rare-earth minerals for one year, a delay he expects to be routinely extended. Mr. Trump claimed the rare earth issue has been “settled.”
China produces as much as 95% of the world’s rare earth magnets, according to energy research company Wood Mackenzie and they’re used to make everything from semiconductor chips to missiles.
“We have a deal now,” the president said aboard Air Force One on the way back from South Korea. “Every year we’ll renegotiate the deal, but I think the deal will go on for a long time, long beyond the year. We’ll negotiate at the end of a year. But all of the rare earth has been settled.”
China to resume buying U.S. soybeans
Mr. Trump also announced on Truth Social that Xi authorized China to begin purchasing “massive amounts of soybeans” and other farm products from the U.S.
Soybeans have been a serious point of contention between the U.S. and China, after China, typically the largest buyer of U.S. soybeans, stopped buying them altogether as a rebuke of Mr. Trump’s tariff regime.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business on Thursday that China has pledged to return to regular levels of soybean purchases each year for the next three years, and that China agreed to purchase 12 million metric tons of soybeans this season.
No paper deal on TikTok
Mr. Trump did not make any announcements about a finalized agreement to keep TikTok running in the U.S., although Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said they received Chinese approval of a deal to transfer ownership of the company, so it’s no longer under the umbrella of a Chinese company. Still, Bessent said the matter would be resolved in the coming weeks or months.
“In Kuala Lumpur, we finalized the TikTok agreement in terms of getting Chinese approval,” Bessent said on Fox Business. “And I would expect that that would go forward in the coming weeks and months, and we’ll finally see a resolution to that.”
On Sunday, Bessent told “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that the administration was close to a deal to separate TikTok from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, and that Mr. Trump and Xi would sign something Thursday. No announcement on this came after the meeting, though.
CBS News has asked the Treasury Department for clarification on Bessent’s remarks about securing Chinese approval.
“China will work with the U.S. to properly resolve issues related to TikTok,” China’s Commerce Ministry said after the meeting, the Associated Press reported.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly delayed enforcing a law Congress passed banning TikTok from operating in the U.S. as long as it’s operating under its China-based parent company, and the Supreme Court upheld that ban.
On chips
Mr. Trump said he and Xi “did discuss chips,” and Xi would be “talking with Nvidia and others. Mr. Trump said he’d speak with Nvidia CEO Jensen Hugan, as China seeks to buy U.S.-made chips.
The president said whether China purchases chips from Nvidia is largely up to Nvidia and Beijing, after the U.S. imposed restrictions on China’s purchase of U.S.-made chips, citing national security reasons. Chips could be used to promote China’s military and artificial intelligence capabilities.
“I said that’s going to be between you and Nvidia, but we’re sort of the arbitrator and the referee,” Mr. Trump said.
