Trump says US-China trade deal is ‘done’, bringing potential end to bitter trade war with Beijing
11 June 2025, 15:04 | Updated: 11 June 2025, 15:19
Trump has said that a trade deal between the US and China is ‘done’, signalling that an end to the trade war between the economic superpowers is finally in sight.
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President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that the United States will get magnets and rare earth minerals from China under a new trade deal and that tariffs on Chinese goods will go to 55%.
In return, Mr Trump said the US will provide China "what was agreed to", including allowing Chinese students to attend American colleges and universities.
The world's two largest economies said that they have agreed on a framework to get their trade negotiations back on track after two days of high-level talks in London.
Trump’s imposition of tariffs on China earlier this year spiralled into a tit-for-tat economic war, resulting in the US slapping 145% tariffs on Chinese imports, and Beijing responding with a 125% levy on American goods.
Though the US is normally China’s largest customer, the tariff dispute led to a sharp drop in Chinese exports to the US - a decrease of 35% year on year in May.
The back and forth also caused sharp swings in global markets and threatened to affect the diplomatic relationship between the two countries, until they agreed to halt their dispute and attempt to negotiate a deal.
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Trump lowered his tariffs on Chinese goods to 30% for 90 days to allow for talks, and China reduced its taxes on US goods to 10% in an agreement reached last month in Geneva, and tense negotiations have been ongoing ever since.
The US accused China of not exporting critical minerals, and the Chinese government objected to America restricting its sale of advanced chips and its access to student visas for Chinese college and graduate students.
But these differences have apparently been smoothed out, as Trump announced the deal on his Truth Social platform.
The US president wrote: "Our deal with China is done, subject to final approval with President Xi and me.
"Full magnets, and any necessary rare earths, will be supplied, up front, by China. Likewise, we will provide to China what was agreed to, including Chinese students using our colleges and universities (which has always been good with me!).
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"We are getting a total of 55% tariffs, China is getting 10%. Relationship is excellent!"
The meeting in London was highly focused on rare earth minerals - which are vital to modern technology including computer chips and electric vehicles, as well as - crucially - military technology.
China holds an effective monopoly over the supply of these metals, and is the largest global supplier of rare earth minerals, producing around 60% of the world’s supply and processing almost 90%.
The bitter tariff war between the two super-powers had already led to fears the automotive industry would suffer immensely, with experts warning the industry would grind to a halt if their supply of rare earths stopped.
Investors and automotive executives can now breathe a cautious sigh of relief, ahead of its final approval by presidents Trump and Xi.
The talks reportedly involved more than 20 hours of negotiating and fine-tuning aspects of the deal over two days in London, before ending in an agreement late into Tuesday night.
The US delegation was led by Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, and the trade representative, Jamieson Greer.
“We have reached a framework to implement the Geneva consensus and the call between the two presidents,” Lutnick told reporters on Tuesday..
“The idea is we’re going to go back and speak to President Trump and make sure he approves it. They’re going to go back and speak to President Xi and make sure he approves it, and if that is approved, we will then implement the framework.”