US President Donald Trump announced that he had a phone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping that lasted approximately 1.5 hours.
The main agenda item of the meeting was the new trade agreement recently agreed between the two countries. Trump said the meeting had produced positive results for both sides and that complexities, especially on the rare earths issue, had been resolved.
Trump said on social media, “I had a very productive phone call with President Xi of China. During this call that lasted about an hour and a half, we discussed some of the sensitive points of the trade agreement we recently agreed on. The meeting was very positive for both countries. There should no longer be any question marks about the complexity of rare earth products.”
It was also stated that representatives of the two countries will hold face-to-face meetings at a location to be determined shortly. It was announced that the US side will be represented by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer.
Trump also said that President Xi invited him and his wife Melania Trump to China and that in response to this kind invitation, Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan were invited to the U.S. Trump noted that the meeting focused almost entirely on trade issues, and that other geopolitical issues such as Russia-Ukraine or Iran were not brought up.
The call came just days after Trump accused China of violating the initial trade deal reached in May last week and just a day after a Truth Social post in which he said Xi was “extremely difficult to make deals with.”
As a result of negotiations between the parties, it was decided that the US would reduce customs duties on Chinese imports from 145% to 30%, while China would reduce duties on US imports from 125% to 10%.
Trump, however, expressed disappointment that China had not fully complied with the agreement. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CNBC: “The United States has done its part, but China has been slow to remove the non-tariff barriers that are in the agreement. This is completely unacceptable and must be addressed.”
*This is not investment advice.
