China on Thursday validated the trade deal announced by U.S. President Donald Trump, saying both sides needed to abide by consensus, adding that China always keeps its promises.
The deal followed a phone call between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping last week, bringing a delicate truce in the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
“China has always kept its word and pursued results,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a regular news briefing. “Now that consensus has been reached, both sides should earnestly abide by it.”
The call between Trump and Xi broke the deadlock that erupted weeks after the initial deal was reached in Geneva. The call was quickly followed by more talks in London that Washington said added “substantial content” to the implementation of the Geneva agreement aimed at easing bilateral retaliatory tariffs.
The Geneva deal was frustrated by China’s continued restrictions on mineral exports, prompting the Trump administration to impose export controls to block semiconductor design software, jet engines for Chinese-made aircraft and other goods from being shipped to China.
Trump said on Wednesday he was very satisfied with the trade deal. “Our deal with China has been made, but it still needs to be approved by me and President Xi,” Trump said on Truth Social.
“All magnets will be pre-supplied by China, as well as all necessary rare earth elements. Likewise, we will provide China with what we have agreed to, including the use of our colleges and universities by Chinese students (which I always like!). We will get a total of 55% tariffs and China will get 10% tariffs.”
However, the specifics of the latest agreement and how it will be implemented remain unclear.
A White House official said the 55% rate is the sum of the basic 10% “reciprocal” tariffs Trump has imposed on imports from almost all U.S. trading partners, the 20% tariffs on all Chinese imports imposed over accusations that China has not done enough to stop the flow of fentanyl into the United States, and the 25% tariffs on imports from China imposed during Trump’s first term.
When asked about the rare earth export restrictions, China’s Ministry of Commerce said it would continue to strengthen the approval process but declined to say how many licenses would be approved this week.
“China is willing to further strengthen communication and dialogue with relevant countries on export controls and promote compliance and trade facilitation,” Ministry of Commerce spokesman He Yadong said at a regular press conference.
