WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he reached an agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping on soybean purchases, fentanyl precursors, and rare earth exports, paving the way for a finalized trade deal to be signed “pretty soon” that he said would last for at least a year and result in an immediate reduction in tariffs.
China will immediately begin purchasing “tremendous amounts” of soybeans and other agricultural products from the United States, the president told reporters flying with him on Air Force One.
A deal, Trump said, was also reached to keep China’s proposed export controls on rare earth minerals from taking effect. “That roadblock is gone now. There’s no roadblock at all on rare earth,” he explained.
“We have not too many major stumbling blocks,” Trump said of a formal trade agreement. “We have a deal. Now, every year, we’ll renegotiate the deal. But I think the deal will go on for a long time. Long beyond the year, we’ll negotiate at the end of a year.”
The agreement in principle was reached after Trump met with Xi for one hour and forty minutes at a South Korean summit, where they were expected to resolve differences on soybeans, critical minerals, and fentanyl, as well as discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Xi said both sides had reached a consensus to resolve “major trade issues,” according to a readout of his remarks published on state media Xinhua News Agency.
Xi said the agreement amounted to a “reassuring pill” for both countries’ economies. “China and the United States can jointly demonstrate the responsibility befitting of major powers, working together to accomplish more significant, practical and beneficial undertakings for both nations and for the world.”
Trump and Xi emerged from their meeting at Gimhae Air Base with a smile. As they stepped out, the two leaders shook hands, with Trump leaning to whisper something to Xi. They did not address the press as each made their way into their respective cars. The president offered details on the meeting to reporters while he flew back to Washington.
Xi agreed to work “very hard” on curbing fentanyl precursors, Trump said after their meeting. “I think you’re going to see some real action taken.”
As a result, Trump said he would immediately halve a fentanyl-related tariff that had been at 20%. It will be immediately reduced to 10%. A variety of other tariffs are still in place, leaving the rate at 45-47% on certain Chinese imports.
Trump said he would be visiting China in April, and Xi would visit him in the United States at some point afterwards.
“I think it was a very friendly meeting. It was a good meeting for two very large, powerful countries. That’s the way we should get along with a large powerful country,” Trump said.
‘Normal for the two leading countries to have frictions now and then’
China is the world’s second largest economy and one the United States’ top trading partners. The nations have been locked in a tit-for-tat trade battle since early February, when Trump hiked tariffs on Beijing over fentanyl trafficking.
In the latest round of threats, Trump said he would impose a 100% tariff on imports from China in response to the country’s boycott of American soybeans and restrictions on the export of rare earth minerals used to make defense equipment, smartphones and electric vehicles. After their meeting in South Korea, the president said both were off.
Trade negotiatiors for the two countries announced a framework for a possible agreement over the weekend that the Trump administration suggested would address hot button issues.
Xi said at the start of his meeting with Trump that the talks created the conditions for the leaders to meet in South Korea.
“I always believed that China’s development goes hand-in-hand with your vision to make America great again. Our two countries are fully able to help each other succeed and prosper together,” Xi said. “Over the years I have stated in public many times that China and the United States should be partners and friends. This is what history has taught us and what reality demands.”
Relations between the two countries have remained “stable on the whole” since the start of Trump’s second term, the Chinese leader said, without mentioning the trade war.
“Given our different national conditions, we do not always see eye to eye with each other, and it is normal for the two leading countries to have frictions now and then,” Xi said through a translator.
Trump, XI relationship
The last time the leaders saw each other prior to the South Korean summit was in 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic. The rapid spread of the of the virus upended the global economy and derailed relations between the two nations.
The relationship later suffered another setback in 2023 when a Chinese spy balloon was detected over American airspace. Former President Joe Biden and Xi met multiple times, including in November 2024, after Trump’s victory in the presidential election.
Trump and Xi have spoken by phone three times this year. Xi said they’d also exchanged letters.
In South Korea, Trump said that Xi had been a friend of his “for a long time” and hailed his counterpart as “distinguished and respected.”
“President Xi is a great leader of a great country, and I think we’re going to have a fantastic relationship for a long period of time,” Trump said at the start of their talks.
“You care a lot about world peace, and you’re very enthusiastic about settling various regional hotspot issues,” Xi told Trump, later complimenting the U.S. leader on his “great contribution” to the Gaza ceasefire agreement.
Xi was less laudatory of Trump’s involvement in other conflicts, saying he “provided input” in the border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand. It is among the eight conflicts Trump said he resolved.
“The world today is confronted with many tough problems. China and the U.S. can jointly shoulder our responsibility as major countries and work together to accomplish more great and concrete things for the good of our two countries and the whole world,” Xi said.
Left unmentioned: North Korea’s illicit missile tests, Chinese aggression towards Tawian and Russia’s invasion and occupation of eastern Ukraine. In September, Xi appeared alongside North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladmir Putin at a military parade in Beijing.
Trump told reporters later that Taiwain did not come up during his conversaion with Xi — but they had an extensive discussion about Ukraine. “He’s going to help us, and we’re going to work together on Ukraine,” Trump said. “There’s not a lot more we can do.”
And while the president had previously signaled interest in meeting with Kim while he was in Asia, he told reporters as he flew home that he ultimately did not have time.
“I was so busy,” he said. “I think it would have been, maybe disrespectful to the importance of this meeting if we did that. So, I’d come back, with respect to Kim Jong Un. I’d come back.”
Contributing: Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy
