Trump Says ‘Amazing’ Xi Meeting Yielded Fentanyl Tariff Cut

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“It’s a one year deal that will, I think, be very routinely extended,” Trump said. It was unclear if the 90-day truce on so-called reciprocal tariffs, which is set to expire on Nov. 10, would also be extended for a year. 

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Beijing has used the rare-earth restrictions as a cudgel in the trade talks, threatening to restrict access for US and allied manufacturers to critical minerals necessary for high-tech manufacturing of smartphones, jet engines and other widely used products.

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Trump also said Xi would take concrete steps to reduce the flow of precursor chemicals used to create fentanyl.

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“I believe he’s going to work very hard to stop the death that’s coming in,” Trump said. 

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US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, speaking alongside Trump, said the US would “postpone” action under Section 301 related to shipping and ports. Earlier this year, the US announced port service fees on Chinese-owned vessels, with the Chinese retaliating later in the year.

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“So that’s no longer an issue,” Trump said.

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The president didn’t provide additional details on potential Chinese investments, but said details of the overall pact would be released later. On the resumption of soybean purchases — a political victory that should benefit farmers in his rural base — he said only that “tremendous amounts of the soybeans and other farm products are going to be purchased.”

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The US leader also didn’t detail the status of some expected elements of the deal, including approval of the sale of the US operations of ByteDance Ltd.’s social video app TikTok. Nor did he say if he had agreed to an expected Chinese push for Washington to roll back a rule that exposes subsidiaries that are at least 50%-owned by blacklisted firms to the same curbs as their sanctioned parent. The regulations have placed due diligence burdens on exporters.

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Trump did say the leaders also agreed to work together on Ukraine, but indicated that Beijing had not agreed to his call for countries to cease oil purchases from Russia that helped to bankroll the country’s war effort.

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“We didn’t really discuss the oil,” Trump said. “We discussed working together to see if we could get that war finished.”

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‘The Right Course’

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Ahead of the meeting at an air base in Busan, South Korea, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, both leaders expressed optimism about repairing their economic ties.

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“We do not always see eye-to-eye with each other, and it is normal for the two leading economies of the world to have frictions now and then,” Xi said. He added that the two “should stay the right course and ensure the steady sailing forward of the giant ship of China-US relations.”

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The outcome is poised to resolve — at least for now — months of trade brinkmanship in which the world’s two largest economies have threatened a series of levies and export controls on their products. 

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Still, it’s likely to fall short of a comprehensive agreement that addresses issues at the heart of the US-China economic competition.

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Participants in the talks on the American side included Greer, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and US Ambassador to China David Perdue were at the table.

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For the Chinese, Vice Premier He Lifeng, Xi’s chief of staff Cai Qi, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie, Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu were in attendance.

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—With assistance from Josh Xiao and Anand Krishnamoorthy.

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(Updates with Xi comments from fourth paragraph)

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