- China will grant six-month export licenses for rare-earth minerals, while the U.S. will relax restrictions on key high-tech exports.
- Both sides agreed to freeze current tariff levels (U.S. at 55%, China at 10%) with no immediate cuts, keeping the Geneva truce alive.
- Chinese students will continue to access U.S. universities, reinforcing academic and cultural ties amid broader trade negotiations.
US and Chinese officials had agreed on a framework to put their trade truce back on track and remove China’s export restrictions on rare earths while offering little sign of a durable resolution to longstanding trade differences, reports Channel News Asia.
US–China Trade Talks Yield Truce
At the end of two days of intense negotiations in London, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters the framework deal puts “meat on the bones” of an agreement reached last month in Geneva to ease bilateral retaliatory tariffs that had reached crushing triple-digit levels.
But the Geneva deal had faltered over China’s continued curbs on critical minerals exports, prompting the Trump administration to respond with export controls of its own preventing shipments of semiconductor design software, chemicals and other technology goods to China.
Lutnick said the agreement reached in London would remove some of the recent US export restrictions, but did not provide details after the talks concluded around midnight London time (2300 GMT). “We have reached a framework to implement the Geneva consensus and the call between the two presidents,” Lutnick said.
“The idea is we’re going to go back and speak to President Trump and make sure he approves it. They’re going to go back and speak to President Xi and make sure he approves it, and if that is approved, we will then implement the framework.” In a separate briefing, China’s Vice Commerce Minister Li Chenggang also said a trade framework had been reached that would be taken back to US and Chinese leaders.
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Source: Channel News Asia
