President Trump, Xi Jinping ease fight on tariffs and critical rare earths

DONALD Trump and Xi Jinping agreed on Thursday to calm the trade war between China and the United States that has roiled global markets, with Washington cutting some tariffs and Beijing committing to keep supplies of critical rare earths flowing.

- AFP

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump.

(KEVIN LAMARQUE AFP)

Trump called his first meeting with Xi in six years a “great success’, while the Chinese leader said the two reached an “important consensus” towards solving the fight between the world’s two top economies.

“I thought it was an amazing meeting,’ Trump said after the talks in Busan, South Korea, praising Xi as a “tremendous leader of a very powerful country” and saying he would visit China in April.

Trump added that the deal included China immediately buying “tremendous amounts of soybeans and other farm products’, a key issue for Trump's support in farm country and a point of leverage for Beijing.

The US leader said the talks yielded an extendable one-year deal on China’s supply of crucial rare earths, materials that are essential for sophisticated electronic components across a range of industries.

Beijing’s commerce ministry also confirmed it would suspend for one year certain export restrictions, including on rare earth materials, a sector where China is hugely dominant.