The U.S. and China have reached a “framework” to implement a trade deal struck between the two sides last month in Geneva, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced.
Trump then posted on Truth Social Wednesday that “our deal with China is done, subject to final approval with President Xi and me.”
The development comes after two days of meetings between negotiators in London and a phone call last week between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The U.S. and China announced a 90-day détente that involved reduced tariffs in May, but both sides had accused each other of running afoul of the deal.
“We have reached a framework to implement the Geneva consensus,” Lutnick said.
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“Full magnets, and any necessary rare earths, will be supplied, up front, by China. Likewise, we will provide to China what was agreed to, including Chinese students using our colleges and universities (which has always been good with me!). We are getting a total of 55% tariffs, China is getting 10%. Relationship is excellent!” Trump said Wednesday.
“Adding to the China readout, President XI and I are going to work closely together to open up China to American Trade. This would be a great WIN for both countries!!!” he also said.
Lutnick reportedly said he expects Trump to approve the agreement as soon as Wednesday, noting”I feel really good about where we got to.”
The Chinese foreign ministry cited Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng as saying that “The two sides should work towards each other, keep words and follow through with actions, demonstrate sincerity in honoring commitments, and make concrete efforts to implement consensus, jointly safeguard the hard-won outcomes of dialogue, continue maintaining communication and consultation, to promote steady and sustained growth of China-U.S. economic and trade relations and inject more certainty and stability into the world economy.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that a key goal for the American negotiators led by Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was to encourage Beijing to accelerate their exports of rare-earth minerals and magnets that contain them.
Meanwhile, Beijing’s negotiators asked the U.S. to ease restrictions on the sale of technology and other goods to China, it added, citing people familiar with the matter.
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Both sides did not reveal what was agreed to in the framework, The Wall Street Journal also reported.
However, Lutnick said “We do absolutely expect that the topic of rare earth minerals and magnets, with respect to the United States of America, will be resolved in this framework implementation.”
Earlier this month, China accused the U.S. of undermining the trade agreement between the two countries.
According to a translation of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s website, a ministry spokesperson said at the time that after the discussions in Geneva the U.S. “has successively introduced a number of discriminatory restrictive measures against China, including issuing export control guidelines for AI chips, stopping the sale of chip design software (EDA) to China, and announcing the revocation of Chinese student visas.”
“At the direction of President Trump, the Administration is aggressively moving to onshore critical supply chains, including the production of magnets, in the United States,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had said.
FOX Business’ Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.
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