Senior US and Chinese officials will resume trade talks for a second time in London today, hoping to reach a breakthrough on export controls on commodities such as rare earth metals, Reuters writes.
The two sides met the previous day in the British capital to discuss differences over the Geneva agreement and are due to resume talks early Tuesday morning, after which Washington and Beijing are expected to issue an update.
The U.S. side is led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamison Greer, while the Chinese delegation is led by Vice Premier He Lifen.
The inclusion of Lutnick, whose department oversees export controls for the United States, is one indication of how important rare earth elements have become, Reuters notes.
China has a near monopoly on rare-earth magnets, which are an important component of electric car engines.
Lutnick was not present at the talks in Geneva, where the countries reached a 90-day agreement to eliminate some of the triple-digit tariffs the countries have imposed on each other.
The second round of meetings between the two sides comes four days after a phone call between US President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, their first direct interaction since Trump’s inauguration on 20 January.