The US and China ended two days of talks in London with the announcement of a new effort to try and move past recent flareups and get back to negotiations that had been planned after a gathering last month in Geneva.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick described the agreement to reporters as “a framework to implement the Geneva consensus” — suggesting this gathering was about getting the “negativity out.” The Chinese negotiator offered similar takeaways to Chinese state media.
Both sides hinted that this week’s talks will lead to a Chinese speed-up of shipments of rare earth metals critical to US and world supply chains in exchange for Washington easing some of its own export controls on things like semiconductors.
But neither side is offering specifics. The clear focus for the moment is defusing these issues with an eye toward opening up talks on broader topics — like tariffs — later.
The deals will now be presented to US President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping for their reaction.
Trump offered his own reaction Wednesday morning with a social media post asserting that a deal is “done” and will include the supplying of rare earth minerals by China “up front” as well as give Chinese students access to US universities.
Trump also said “WE ARE GETTING A TOTAL OF 55% TARIFFS.”
He arrived at that figure, according to a White House aide, by adding the existing blanket 20% tariffs on illegal drugs, 10% baseline tariffs and other pre-existing duties duties that average out to 25% but only apply to certain goods.
Outside analysts like the budget lab at Yale have calculated that the effective tariff rate on China across all goods is more like 33%.
A variety of market observers quickly weighed in hours after Tuesday evening’s unveiling to suggest that the deal may not have a lot of meat on the bones, but at least relations are no longer moving in the wrong direction.
The talks perhaps underscored how unlikely a comprehensive trade deal is anytime soon, noted AGF Investments’ Greg Valliere, “but at least relations may not worsen as talks continue throughout the summer.”
Both sides promised additional talks in the weeks or months ahead, but none have yet been scheduled.
Read more: What Trump’s tariffs mean for the economy and your wallet
Veronique de Rugy, a professor at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, suggested the talks continued to show China’s leverage: “China is hurting, yes, but they still hold the upper hand on critical resources, and they know how to use them.”

DJ Kamal Mustafa
I’m DJ Kamal Mustafa, the founder and Editor-in-Chief of EMEA Tribune, a digital news platform that focuses on critical stories from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Pakistan. With a deep passion for investigative journalism, I’ve built a reputation for delivering exclusive, thought-provoking reports that highlight the region’s most pressing issues.
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