How durable is Trump's China deal?

The Trump administration is hailing a potential deal that may return the US- China relationship to where it was before the president began a trade war against Beijing, writes Ana Swanson in Washington

- Ana Swanson

A ship docked at the container terminal in Qingdao, Shandong province. The US and China have been in negotiations about tariffs.

(AFP)

Trump administration officials have hailed the makings of a potential trade deal that could have China buy American soybeans and pause the introduction of its new licensing system on rare earth minerals, while the United States pauses or removes some of its tariffs.

It remains to be seen what might be agreed when President Trump meets the Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week. But those and the other measures that US officials have mentioned appear to largely restore the relationship to a status quo from earlier this year, before Trump began his latest trade war with Beijing.

The United States and China have shown their willingness to repeatedly escalate trade tensions and hurt companies that do business across the Pacific, before walking back measures and striking a truce. But the truces have quickly crumbled, calling into question how durable a new agreement would be.

Speaking on ABC News on Sunday, Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, said American and Chinese negotiators who met in Malaysia over the weekend had "reached a substantial framework" for the two leaders to discuss when they meet in South Korea tomorrow.

He said that a 100% increase in United States tariffs on Chinese exports scheduled for Nov 1 had been averted, and that China had agreed to delay a rare earths licensing system "for a year while they reexamine it." The Chinese also agreed to help the United States stop the flow of chemical ingredients used to make illicit fentanyl, and make "substantial agriculture purchases for US farmers," Mr Bessent said.