Shanghai, China – China and the United States have agreed on the terms of the trade agreement in their last round of negotiations, held in London, and Beijing will review and approve applications for the export of restricted goods, such as rare earths, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce reported Friday.
Following negotiations in London, teams from China and the US maintained close communication, and recently, both parties confirmed the details of the agreement, a spokesperson for the institution said in a statement on its official website.
The document states that China will review and approve applications for export of controlled goods that meet the conditions under the law, in an apparent reference to rare earths, key minerals for sectors such as defense or automotive and whose production the Asian country controls, which imposed restrictions on its export in early April.
In return, the ministry said that the US would cancel a series of restrictive measures it took against China, but did not give further details.
It further hoped that the US and China would find a middle ground and meet the important consensus and requirements reached by the heads of state on Jun. 5, referring to the call between the US and Chinese presidents, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, which led to the trade representatives of both nations to meet in London.
The confirmation from China came a day after Trump said that the US had signed an agreement with China without offering details about it.
However, in mid-June, after two days of negotiations in the British capital, the Republican leader pointed out that the agreement includes a US tariff of 55 percent on Chinese products and another 10 percent on the goods of the North American country by Beijing.
The London agreement set up a framework to implement the “consensus” reached by Xi and Trump in the call, although a final approval was pending for it to be signed.
The negotiations sought to reduce tensions between the two powers after they accused each other of breaching the agreement reached in Geneva, Switzerland, in May, and started a 90-day trade truce whereby China would cut its tariffs on US products from 125 percent to 10 percent while the US would do the same from 145 percent to 30 percent on Chinese goods.
Following his return to the White House, Trump intensified the trade war he had initiated in 2018 by beginning a tariff escalation against China that descended into a sort of trade embargo between the world’s two largest economic powers.
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