June 27, 2025:
BANGKOK (AP) — The U.S. and China have signed an agreement on trade, President Donald Trump said, adding he expects to soon have a deal with India.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Bloomberg TV that the deal was signed earlier this week. Neither Lutnick nor Trump provided any details about the agreement.
“We just signed with China the other day,” Trump said late Thursday (June 26, 2025).
Lutnick said the deal was “signed and sealed” two days earlier.
It was unclear if the latest agreement was different from the one Trump announced two weeks earlier that he said would make it easier for American industries to obtain much-needed needed magnets and rare earth minerals. That pact cleared the way for the trade talks to continue, while the U.S. agreed to stop trying to revoke visas of Chinese nationals on U.S. college campuses.
China’s Commerce Ministry said Friday that the two sides had “further confirmed the details of the framework.” But its statement did not explicitly mention U.S. access to rare earths, minerals used in high-tech applications that have been at the center of the negotiations.
“China will approve the export applications of controlled items that meet the conditions in accordance with the law. The United States will cancel a series of restrictive measures taken against China accordingly. It is hoped that the United States and China will meet each other halfway,” it said.
The agreement follows initial talks in Geneva in early May that led both sides to postpone massive tariff hikes that were threatening to freeze much trade between the two countries. Later talks in London set a framework for negotiations and the deal mentioned by Trump appeared to formalize that agreement.
“The president likes to close these deals himself. He’s the dealmaker. We’re going to have deal after deal,” Lutnick said.
China has not announced any new agreements, but it announced earlier this week that it was speeding up approvals of exports of rare earths, materials used in high-tech products such as electric vehicles. Beijing’s limits on exports of rare earths have been a key point of contention.
The Chinese Commerce Ministry said Thursday that Beijing was accelerating review of export license applications for rare earths and had approved “a certain number of compliant applications.”
Export controls of the minerals apparently eclipsed tariffs in the latest round of trade negotiations between Beijing and Washington after China imposed permitting requirements on seven rare earth elements in April, threatening to disrupt production of cars, robots, wind turbines and other high-tech products in the U.S. and around the world.
China also has taken steps recently on the fentanyl issue, announcing last week that it would designate two more substances as precursor chemicals for fentanyl, making them subject to production, transport and export regulations. Trump has demanded that Beijing do more to stop the flow of such precursor ingredients to Mexican drug cartels, which use them to make fentanyl for sale in the U.S. He imposed 20% tariffs on Chinese imports over the fentanyl issue, the biggest part of current 30% across-the-board taxes on Chinese goods.
The agreement struck in May in Geneva called for both sides to scale back punitive tariff hikes imposed as Trump escalated his trade war and sharply raised import duties. Some higher tariffs, such as those imposed by Washington related to the trade in fentanyl and duties on aluminum and steel, remain in place.
The rapidly shifting policies are taking a toll on both of the world’s two largest economies.
The U.S. economy contracted at a 0.5% annual pace from January through March, partly because imports surged as companies and households rushed to buy foreign goods before Trump could impose tariffs on them.
In China, factory profits sank more than 9% from a year earlier in May, with automakers suffering a large share of that drop. They fell more than 1% year-on-year in January-May.
Trump and other U.S. officials have indicated they expect to reach trade deals with many other countries, including India.
“We’re going to have deal after deal after deal,” Lutnick said.
June 25, 2025:
United States and China tensions and the resulting tariffs cost U.S. farmers $2 billion in lost exports this year.
A new study from North Dakota State University’s Center for Agricultural Policy and Trade Studies says the lost sales to China far surpass modest gains elsewhere. From January to April, agricultural exports to China contracted by over $5 billion, leaving export volumes up to 55 percent lower than the previous year. U.S. ag exports to South Asia, the European Union, and Central America climbed by 43, 39, and 24 percent, respectively. However, U.S. gains didn’t get high enough to offset the losses in the Chinese market. Both countries reduced tariffs as part of a deal negotiated in Switzerland. However, the U.S. preserved a baseline ten percent tariff on Chinese products and a 20 percent tariff applied over China’s role in the fentanyl crisis. Beijing has a ten percent tariff in place.
May 13, 2025:
GENEVA (AP) — U.S. and Chinese officials say they have called a 90-day truce in their trade war, rolling back most of their recent tariff hikes. The two countries said Monday (May 12, 2025) that they plan more talks on resolving trade disputes. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer says that the U.S. has agreed to drop its 145% tariff rate on Chinese goods to 30%. And China has agreed to lower its 125% rate on U.S. goods to 10%. Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the reductions at a news conference in Geneva. The deal creates time to reach a more substantive agreement. But tariffs are still higher than before Trump started ramping them up last month. And businesses and investors are uncertain about whether the truce will last.
Reaction from agriculture groups:
National Pork Producers Council President Duane Stateler, a pork producer from McComb, Ohio, released the following statement after the Trump administration announced a 90-day temporary tariff de-escalation on U.S. exports. “America’s pork producers are encouraged by the temporary tariff reduction agreement reached by the U.S. and China. We look forward to the continued collaboration and engagement between both countries to further reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade. No other country holds a candle to our export opportunities in China, as many of our exported pork products, such as offals, are not widely consumed in the U.S. and have nowhere to go.”
U.S. Meat Export Federation President and CEO Dan Halstrom: “USMEF greatly appreciates the efforts of U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to negotiate this agreement with their Chinese counterparts. Although this is a temporary pause, we are hopeful that it is the first step toward restoring access to China for U.S. pork and beef.”
U.S. Grains Council: “The U.S. Grains Council thanks President Trump and his administration for continuing to work with one of our largest trading partners to level the trade playing field. This 90-day window will allow more time for ongoing negotiations, positive news for both our countries. We hope it is the first step in a new trade relationship between China and the United States.”
Caleb Ragland, American Soybean Association president and a farmer who grows soy in Kentucky, said, “We are very pleased with these first steps toward resolution and appreciate that President Trump has heard our requests to quickly come to the negotiation table for agriculture producers and others who stand to suffer financial losses and lose hard-earned relationships. Farmers want to play their part in supporting broad-based, long-term solutions to the administration’s concerns and help our fellow U.S. citizens when possible; but we cannot sustain tariffs that are exponentially higher than those of the first China trade war, which knocked out our largest export market overnight, if they linger into our fall harvest season. We hope that a deal can be reached in which China commits to robust purchases of U.S. soybeans and other products very soon.”
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