President Trump announced an agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping to ease their trade war following a meeting Thursday, with the U.S. scaling back tariffs and China delaying export controls and resuming some soybean purchases.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he agreed to cut fentanyl-related tariffs on Beijing in half, down to 10 percent from 20 percent, after speaking with Xi. He added that the reduction brings import taxes on Chinese goods down 10 percent, from 57 percent to 47 percent.
“Overall, I guess on the scale of zero to ten with ten being the best, I would say the meeting was a 12,” the president said.
In a post on Truth Social early Thursday, Trump laid out additional issues that the two countries agreed on during the meeting, including investment in U.S. agriculture and a deal on rare earth minerals.
“I was extremely honored by the fact that President Xi authorized China to begin the purchase of massive amounts of Soybeans, Sorghum, and other farm products,” Trump wrote in the post. “In fact, as I said once before during my first Administration, Farmers should immediately go out and buy more land and larger tractors. I would like to thank President Xi for this!”
“Additionally, China has agreed to continue the flow of Rare Earth, Critical Minerals, Magnets, etc., openly and freely,” he added.
The world leaders and their respective delegations met Thursday in Busan, South Korea, amid increased trade tensions between the two countries. Following the meeting, which lasted less than two hours, Trump and Xi had a cordial exchange before going their separate ways.
However, Trump made headlines prior to the meeting when he announced in a post online that he is directing the Pentagon to begin nuclear weapons testing.
“It had to do with others,” Trump said, when asked about the announcement following his meeting with Xi. “They seem to all be nuclear testing. We have more nuclear weapons than anybody.””
“We don’t do testing, and we halted it many years ago but with others doing testing, I think it’s appropriate that we do also,” the president added.
The summit marked Trump’s third and final leg of his Asia trip. Prior to the meeting, the president announced his administration had reached a trade deal with South Korea that includes a pledge for Seoul to invest $350 million in U.S. manufacturing in exchange for lesser tariffs.
During his visit to Japan on Tuesday, the president said the Japanese carmaker Toyota has plans to build autoplants across the U.S. and that the Japanese government said it would purchase a fleet of Ford F-150s. And on Sunday, the president formalized a peace agreement between Cambodia and Thailand.
Xi praised what he said were Trump’s efforts in the global peacemaking process.
“Mr. President, you care a lot about world peace and you’re very enthusiastic about settling various regional hotspot issues,” Xi said, referring to the Cambodia-Thailand agreement and the recent, though fragile, Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
Trump also told reporters on Air Force One that Russia’s war in Ukraine came up “very strongly” during his meeting with Xi.
“We’re both going to work together to see if we can get something done,” Trump said. We agree that the sides are locked in, fighting, and sometimes you have to let them fight, I guess.”
He added, “Crazy. But he’s going to help us and we’re going to work together on Ukraine.”
