Trump cuts tariffs on China after striking rare earths deal with Xi

But experts say outcome more of a tactical pause than a breakthrough

- Bhagyashree Garekar US Bureau Chief and Yew Lun Tian Senior Correspondent

A meeting of about 100 minutes on a cloudy morning in an unglamorous building off an airport tarmac in South Korea appears to have brought some respite in the US-China trade war.

Several pain points in trade between the world's largest economies - rare earths, soya beans and fentanyl-related tariffs - were addressed during the first face-to-face meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping since 2019.

Both leaders, in saying nice things about each other, also appeared to have stepped back from the toxicity that had enveloped the trade war, much to the relief of businesses and consumers.

China agreed to pause for one year the sweeping export controls on rare earths announced on Oct 9 that had threatened US manufacturers across industries from cars to fighter jets.

On his flight back to Washington after the meeting that capped his five-day trip to Asia, Mr Trump described the Oct 30 meeting with Mr Xi as "amazing".

"On a scale of 0 to 10 with 10 being the best, the meeting was a 12," he said.

In China, a statement published in the country's official mouthpiece, the People's Daily, welcomed more cooperation between the two nations and offered assurances of China's commitment to economic reforms.

Speaking to the American press on board Air Force One, Mr Trump said tariffs on China will be cut to 47 per cent from 57 per cent in exchange for cooperation in cracking down on the export of precursor chemicals used to produce fentanyl, the deadly drug that claims thousands of lives in the US each year.

China has also agreed to ease controls it imposed on the export of rare earth elements, which are critical to advanced manufacturing and defence industries.

"All of the rare earth has been settled," Mr Trump said. "There is no roadblock at all on rare earth. That will hopefully disappear from our vocabulary for a little while."