US and Chinese Presidents agree on one-year trade truce

London – United States President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed on a one-year trade truce on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea,

It was the first  face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since 2019.

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

President 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.

Washington and Beijing should “promptly refine and finalise follow-up actions” to implement the consensus and “offer tangible results to reassure both countries and the global economy,” Xi said, according to Xinhua News Agency.

China’s Ministry of Commerce later confirmed aspects of the agreement, including the one-year deferral of its export controls.

Chinese producers hold a near monopoly on the supply of the critical minerals, which are used to make everything from smartphones to fighter jets.

“Trump's team has found itself dealing with a stronger China compared to his first term. Beijing has learnt lessons too. It spent the last four years finding new trade partners and relying less on US exports - nearly a fifth of Chinese exports once went to the US but in the first half of this year that figure dropped to 11%,” BBC reported.