US President Donald Trump has said he had a “very positive outcome” of his phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
“I just finished a very good phone conversation with Chinese leader Xi, discussing some of the finer points of our recently concluded and negotiated trade agreement. The conversation lasted about an hour and a half and ended with a very positive outcome for both countries. There should be no more questions regarding the complexity of rare earth products,” he wrote on social media.
Trump also announced a meeting between the US and Chinese teams. He said the US will be represented by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Ambassador Jamison Greer.
The US President also said that the interlocutors also exchanged invitations to visit their countries.
Trump emphasised that the conversation was almost entirely focused on trade, with nothing discussed regarding Russia/Ukraine or Iran.
As China’s Xinhua news agency reported earlier, the talks were held at Trump’s request.
The day before, Politico wrote that Donald Trump believes that talking to Xi Jinping will help reset trade talks between the countries in tension. And a person familiar with the trade talks said Trump is “obsessed with the idea of talking to Xi.”
In early May, China and the U.S. agreed to a 90-day moratorium on significant increases in import duties on mutual trade announced earlier by both sides. The countries agreed to cut reciprocal duties by 115 per cent, with the US cutting them from 145 per cent to 30 per cent and China from 125 per cent to 10 per cent.
The White House said that the US and Chinese governments, recognising “the importance of the bilateral economic and trade relationship”, decided to reduce duties effective May 14.
Markets reacted to reports of the agreements with a rise in quotations.
In April, US President Donald Trump announced the imposition of trade duties on imported goods from almost every country in the world. He subsequently suspended the imposition of tariffs on all countries, reducing the base duty to 10 per cent, making an exception only for China, for which he raised duties. The PRC also responded by raising import tariffs.
The US administration explained the increase in duties against China by the imbalance in trade with this country, insufficient, in Washington’s opinion, efforts of Beijing to combat the export of the synthetic drug fentanyl, “disrespect that China shows to world markets”. China, for its part, said it would not make concessions and would defend its interests.