AsianFin -- The Trump administration on Monday signaled they would like to ease some tech curbs on China in exchange for Beijing’s withdrawing recent export controls on rare earth products.
Credit：China Central Television
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett expected the trade talks between top U.S. and Chinese officials in London will lead to a big and strong handshake, and after that, the United States will ease export controls on China, and accordingly, China’s restrictions on rare earth exports will also be eased.
Hassett said in a CNBC interview Monday that the purpose of trade talks on Monday “is to make sure that they're serious, but to literally get handshakes”, and “I expect it to be a short meeting with a big, strong handshake.” The Trump’s top economic advisor sent one of the most clearest signal about U.S. willingness to a concession on export curbs yet to avoid rare earth pain.
"Our expectation is that after the handshake, then immediately after the handshake, any export controls from the U.S. will be eased, and the rare earths will be released in volume, and then we can go back to negotiating smaller matters," Hassett responded to a question about the Chinese objection to U.S. restrictions on semiconductor exports.
Hassett said China’s exports controls on rare earth was a very significant sticking point since the country controls mos of the global rare earth and magnet supply. Such curbs on imports to U.S. could disrupt productions for American companies that rely on those materials, said the White House advisor.
Despite some tech curbs that could be removed, Hassett said the restrictions on the most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips made by Nvidia Corporation would remain. “The very, very high-end Nvidia stuff is not what I’m talking about,” Hassett said, adding that curbs would not be lifted on the Nvidia H2O chips that are used to train AI services. “I’m talking about possible export controls on other semiconductors which are also very important to them.”
U.S. President Donald Trump authorized representatives led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in trade talks to negotiate away recent restrictions on the sale of a wide variety of technology and other products to China, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.Trump’s move to give negotiators room to lift export controls on China is deemed by the report as a new strategy, which highlights the impact of China’s curbs on rare earth exports on U.S. industries.
Trump later Monday told reporters “we’ll see” when pressed about the prossibility of removing export controls. “China has been ripping off the United States for many years,” the president said, while adding that “we want to open up China.”
China’s delegation led by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng opened the first meeting of the China-U.S. economic and trade consultation mechanism with U.S. representives in London on Monday. The U.S. -China trade talks would reportedly resume on Tuesday at 10 a.m. local time.
The meeting came four days after Trump spoke to Chinese President Xi jinping during a phone call last Thursday. “I just concluded a very good phone call with President Xi, of China, discussing some of the intricacies of our recently made, and agreed to, Trade Deal,” Trump wrote a post on his social media Truth Social that day.”The call lasted approximately one and a half hours, and resulted in a very positive conclusion for both Countries.”
Trump continued in the post: “There should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of Rare Earth products. ” The president implied he had made progress in address a key sticking point American access to China’s rare-earth metals REMX, which are key for electric vehicles and other high-tech products. But he didn’t give details about how he would handle the matter.
Trump later Thursday said in the Oval Office that he talked about rare-earth magnets are part of focus during the phone call. "We were straightening out some of the points, having to do mostly with rare-earth magnets and some other things," he spoke to reporters.
