London, June 11: Top US and Chinese officials announced on Wednesday that they have agreed to a framework for getting the trade truce between the two countries back on track after two days of intense negotiations.
Officials from the two countries said the framework would restore an earlier agreement reached in Switzerland last month to lower tariffs and Beijing resuming exports of critical minerals.
The plan will now be placed before US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping for final approval. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the deal should result in restrictions on rare earth minerals and magnets, imposed by China, being removed. “Also, there were a number of measures the United States of America put on when those rare earths were not coming,” he added.
“You should expect those to come off, sort of as President Trump said: ‘In a balanced way.’” China has a near-monopoly on exports of rare earth minerals, which are crucial for producing smartphones, electronic goods and electric vehicles. Beijing has been using its dominance as a bargaining chip in the trade war by cutting off supplies to the world market. The US, on its part, has restricted China’s access to US goods such as semiconductors and other related technologies linked to Artificial Intelligence (AI).
“We have reached a framework to implement the Geneva consensus,” Lutnick told reporters. “Once the presidents approve it, we will then seek to implement it,” he added. The new round of negotiations followed a phone call between President Donald Trump and China’s leader Xi Jinping last week.
“We have reached a framework to implement the Geneva consensus and the call between the two presidents,” Lutnick said. “The idea is we’re going to go back and speak to President Trump and make sure he approves it. They’re going to go back and speak to President Xi and if that is approved, we will then implement the framework.”
“The two sides have, in principle, reached a framework for implementing the consensus reached by the two heads of state during the phone call on June 5 and the consensus reached at the Geneva meeting,” China’s Vice Commerce Minister Li Chenggang said.
IANS