Washington — President Trump said Thursday he will cut U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods after he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping for a high-stakes summit in South Korea at the height of a months-long trade war between the world's two largest economies.
“On a scale of zero to 10, with 10 being the best, I would say the meeting was a 12,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he flew back to Washington from the South Korean city of Busan. He called his more than 90-minute meeting with Xi Jinping an “amazing meeting” and a “great success.”
Mr. Trump told reporters that “we have an agreement” on trade, saying he expected to sign an agreement “pretty soon,” although he would likely renegotiate it in the future. “We brought a lot of things to completion” during Thursday’s discussions, the president added, calling Xi “a tremendous leader of a very powerful country.”
Trump said he had decided to cut the overall tariff rate on imports of Chinese goods from 57% to 47% following promises from Xi Jinping to cut the supply of fentanyl ingredients to the United States. Fees of 47% China will still be left with one of the highest tariff rates imposed by the US.
He also told reporters that China would resume buying U.S. soybeans “immediately” after a Chinese boycott left U.S. farmers reeling, and said the row over Chinese restrictions on rare earth exports had been “resolved.” Details about these agreements remain scant.
He told reporters he would travel to China in April for more talks, and Xi would “come here some time later, whether it be in Florida, Palm Beach or Washington, D.C.”
The two leaders met at a South Korean military base at the end of Mr. Trump's nearly week-long trip to Asia.
Before the meeting, Trump said he had a good relationship with Xi Jinping, “but he's a very tough negotiator. That's not good.”
Xi said trade negotiators on both sides have made progress on resolving “core issues” and he believes the US and China should be “partners and friends.”
“Given our different national conditions, we do not always see eye to eye with each other, and it is normal for the world's two leading economies to have disagreements from time to time,” Xi said through a translator, although he noted relations were “generally stable.”
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China is the U.S.'s third-largest trading partner behind Mexico and Canada, with the U.S. buying $438.9 billion in Chinese goods last year and China buying $143.5 billion in U.S. goods.
In April, the two sides briefly imposed huge tit-for-tat tariffs on each other, then delayed imposing those fees to buy time for negotiations. In August, Trump signed an executive action delaying the reinstatement of higher tariffs on Chinese goods for another 90 days, extending the pause until mid-November.
U.S. and Chinese officials have been engaged in trade talks for months leading up to Thursday's meeting between Trump and Xi Jinping.
Earlier this month, Trump threatened introduce an additional tariff rate of 100% on Chinese goods starting November 1 in response to China's tightening of export controls on rare earth minerals and magnets, which will bring total tariffs on Chinese imports to 155%. China has the vast majority of the world's reserves of these raw materials, which are critical for production in key technology areas such as semiconductors and missiles. These additional 100% tariffs are “effectively off the table for now.” Finance Minister Scott Bessent announced this on Sunday. in the program “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan”.
Bessent said he also expects Trump and Xi Jinping to sign the deal On Thursday, TikTok will be majority owned by the United States, although China-owned ByteDance may still have a minority stake of less than 20%.
Defense is another point of tension between China and the US
Trump's first secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said he must commit to Taiwan's independence.
“Xi Jinping is expected to press President Trump to clarify America's position on Taiwan at a meeting this week,” Pompeo wrote on social networks. “America must submit and reaffirm our unequivocal commitment to Taiwan's sovereignty and independence from Beijing.”
But on the way home, Trump told reporters that he and Xi Jinping had not discussed Taiwan.
Separately, moments before the meeting with Xi began, Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social. that he was in charge of the Pentagon resume nuclear weapons testing. And the president said earlier Wednesday that it would allow China's rival South Korea to develop a nuclear submarine.
The last time Mr. Trump and Xi met in person was on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Japan in 2019, during Mr. Trump's first term, although the two leaders spoke by phone. The last conversation between the two men reported by the White House took place on September 19.
Busan, known as an educational and cultural center on the southeast coast of Korea, is the second most populous city in South Korea after its capital Seoul. Xi's meeting is the final item on Trump's five-day tour of Asia, capping a trip primarily aimed at strengthening economic ties and cementing trade agreements in the South Pacific region.
