At a summit in South Korea, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreed to a one-year trade deal that pauses export controls on rare earths and semiconductors, eases tariffs on shipping and fentanyl-related goods, and expands cooperation on agriculture and technology issues, including TikTok. Both sides described the talks as highly positive, with live-fire trade tensions temporarily defused after years of escalation, the Financial Times reports. Trump said the agreement would be reviewed annually but could extend beyond a year, while China confirmed reciprocal suspensions of trade restrictions. The meeting marks the first Trump-Xi encounter in six years and signals a temporary truce in US–China economic friction. They write:
Donald Trump and Xi Jinping have agreed to postpone export controls on rare earths and chips as part of a broad one-year trade deal reached by the US and Chinese leaders at a summit in South Korea.
The US and China said they also reached agreements on American tariffs related to fentanyl and tit-for-tat levies on each other’s shipping industries, as both leaders sought to ease tensions in their first meeting in six years. […]
After the summit, China’s commerce ministry confirmed that Beijing had agreed to suspend the implementation of the rare earths export controls and that the US would suspend the extension of its technology-related export controls to subsidiaries of Chinese companies announced late last month, also for one year. […]
US stock futures and most equity markets in Asia were steady or slightly down on Thursday following the meeting.
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