AsianFin -- The Trump administration on Thursday said a trade deal between the United States and China had been signed this week.
Credit：Xinhua News Agency
U.S. President Donald Trump said he signed a trade deal with China on Wednesday. “We just signed with China yesterday, ” Trump said at the “Bill Beautiful Bill” event at White House on Thursday. While not offering details about the deal, the president said “ we’re starting to open up China.”
Multiple media reports then said the U.S.-China deal followed the framework that two countries had agreed upon through their trade talks from June 9 to 10 in London. USA Today reported the deal refers to an additional understanding around the framework, and it specifically includes an agreement on how China “can expedite rare earths shipments to the U.S. again.”
The Trump and and China agreed to an additional understanding for a framework to implement the Geneva agreement, and the understanding is about “how we can implement expediting rare earths shipments to the U.S. again,” a White House official echoed, according to Reuters. Another White House official said the agreement took place earlier this week.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Thursday told Bloomberg the U.S.-China deal has been signed two day ago. "They’re going to deliver rare earths to us" and once they do that "we'll take down our countermeasures," said Lutnick.
China and the United States have agreed in principle the framework for implementing consensus between the two heads of state during their phone talks on June 5, as well as those reached at Geneva talks, China’s state news agency Xinhua cited Li Chenggang, China international trade representative with the Ministry of Commerce and vice minister of commerce.
Trump in a social media post on June 11 announced that a trade deal with China "is done, subject to final approval", and under the deal, China will supply rare-earth minerals and magnets “up front,” in return, U.S. will “provide to China what was agreed to, including Chinese students using our colleges and universities.” Trump didn’t provide details of terms and just described the relationship between two countries as “excellent.”
However, the Wall Street Journal reported on June 11 that China just granted temporary export licenses as Beijing is putting a six-month limit on rare-earth export licenses for U.S. automakers and manufacturers. The Chinese government wants to retain its chokehold on the critical minerals to give it valuable ammunition for future negotiations, according to the sources.
It was reported that during the two-day meeting in London, U.S. negotiators agreed to ease some recent restrictions on sales to China, such as jet engines and related parts, as well as ethane, in exchange for China’s restoring rare-earth licenses. During the meeting, China was said to agree to approve applications for rare-earth licenses from U.S. companies right away pending the signoff of U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the trade framework. Details of the framework are still being worked out, according to the report.
