US-China meetings in London to talk tariffs have produced the early outline of an agreement that could extend the current 90-day truce between the two countries.
Bloomberg reports that 20 hours of negotiations in the UK capital concluded with a proposal for a deal that now needs to be approved by US president Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping.
Howard Lutnick, the US commerce secretary, said that “first, we had to get sort of the negativity out” and “now we can go forward to try to do positive trade, growing trade”.
Rare earths and export controls
Beyond extending current tariff rates, export controls were among the themes of the talks, and Lutnick has suggested that the US could relax some of its measures on sensitive goods in return for more rapid shipments of rare earth metals to the US from China – which controls 90% of the world’s supply.
The minerals are crucial for, among other things, the car industries of the US and EU. Earlier this month, European car firm association CLEPA said that product lines were being closed due to slow-walking of export approvals for rare earths.
Lutnick added in remarks reported by the Guardian that the provisional agreement puts “meat on the bones” of the truce agreed last month in Geneva, which saw US tariff rates on Chinese goods reduced to 30% and the Chinese rate on US imports to 10%. He noted the need for both Trump and Xi to approve the deal before implementation.
Li Chenggang, the Chinese vice commerce minister, said the discussions had been “very professional, rational, in-depth and candid”.
Accusations
The talks came after fears that the tariff truce could break down over mutual accusations of failure to properly implement the agreement.
At the start of the month, Trump said that China had violated the agreement in remarks made on social media, while US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said it was “holding back products that are essential for the industrial supply chains of India, of Europe”, adding that it “is not what a reliable partner does”.
Tensions appeared to cool following a phone call between Trump and Xi later last week, after which Chinese state media reported that Xi wanted to build on the discussion and “strengthen cooperation” on “foreign affairs, economy and trade, military, and law enforcement”.
Trump, meanwhile, told reporters that he and Xi “straightened out any complexity” on the supply of critical minerals.
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