Trump, Xi Jinping reach trade deal after meeting in South Korea

The US and China have been involved in a trade war since February.

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping have both agreed to de-escalate their trade war and ease tensions that could harm the global economy.

Both leaders agreed to a one-year trade truce on Thursday during a meeting held on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea.

The meeting lasted one hour and forty minutes, according to the Associated Press.

This is the first time Mr Trump and Mr Jinping have met face-to-face since 2019.

Based on the resolution made during the meeting, Mr Trump says the US will cut its fentanyl tariff on Chinese goods from 20 per cent to 10 per cent.

In return, China will begin purchasing massive amounts of soybeans and other agricultural products from the US.

China’s Ministry of Commerce has announced that it will facilitate the US’s access to rare earths. At the same time, the US will suspend the expansion of export controls on foreign firms listed on the Entity List, which had previously affected Chinese companies.

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

Both Countries have been involved in a trade war since February after Mr Trump introduced a 10 per cent tariff on Chinese imports, on the grounds that fentanyl products made in China were flowing into the US and contributing to an opioid crisis.

When Mr Trump introduced a wave of executive orders and tariffs that disrupted global trade earlier in the year, China was hardest hit.

Mr Trump’s tariffs on China also rose to 145 per cent in April, triggering a 125 per cent retaliatory tariff from Mr Jinping.

PREMIUM TIMES, however, reported that in May, China and the United States began talks to de-escalate the trade dispute. After US and Chinese officials met in Geneva, the tariff was reduced from 125 per cent to 10 per cent.

Mr Trump has, however, described his meeting with Mr Jinping as an amazing meeting that produced critical decisions.

He said he discussed the sales of computer chips to China and that the country will speak to Nvidia, the Silicon Valley chipmaker, about purchasing American computer chips.

“That won’t include its next-generation Blackwell AI chip. But a lot of the chips. We make great chips,” he said.