Trump-Xi Trade Deal: China To Suspend Rare Earth Minerals Curbs

President Donald J. Trump has announced a significant trade and economic agreement with China, reached during a bilateral meeting in Busan, South Korea, aimed at easing escalating tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

The deal, detailed in a White House fact sheet released on Saturday, includes China suspending new export controls on rare earth elements and other critical minerals, halting the flow of fentanyl precursors into the United States, and resuming major purchases of U.S. agricultural exports, particularly soybeans. In return, the United States will reduce tariffs on Chinese imports related to fentanyl by 10 percentage points and suspend several retaliatory measures for one year.

China will suspend the implementation of new export controls on rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony, and graphite, which were announced on October 9, 2025. The totalitarian regime China will also issue general licenses for exports of these critical materials, effectively removing the controls imposed in April 2025 and October 2022, benefiting U.S. end users and global suppliers.

The Chinese regime will according to the agreement, take significant measures to stop the shipment of designated fentanyl precursor chemicals to North America and strictly control exports of other chemicals globally.

China will suspend all retaliatory tariffs imposed since March 4, 2025, including those on a wide range of U.S. agricultural products such as soybeans, corn, wheat, pork, beef, dairy, and sorghum. The regime will remove non-tariff countermeasures, including the listing of U.S. companies on its end-user and unreliable entity lists, and will terminate investigations targeting U.S. semiconductor firms.

The communist regime China will purchase at least 12 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans by the end of 2025 and commit to buying at least 25 million metric tons annually through 2028, with resumed imports of U.S. sorghum and hardwood logs. The Asian nation will allow the resumption of trade from Nexperia’s facilities in China, ensuring the flow of critical legacy semiconductor chips to global markets.

The United States on its part, will lower the cumulative tariff rate on Chinese imports related to fentanyl by 10 percentage points, effective Nov. 10, 2025, while maintaining the suspension of heightened reciprocal tariffs until November 10, 2026.

The U.S. will extend the expiration of certain Section 301 tariff exclusions, currently set to expire on November 29, 2025, until November 10, 2026. America will also suspend for one year, starting November 10, 2025, the implementation of the interim final rule expanding end-user controls to affiliates of listed entities.

The U.S. will suspend for one year the implementation of responsive actions from its Section 301 investigation on China’s maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors, while continuing negotiations and cooperation with South Korea and Japan on revitalizing American shipbuilding.

The agreement is part of a broader diplomatic strategy during Trump’s Asia trip, which also included new trade agreements with Malaysia and Cambodia, frameworks for negotiations with Thailand and Vietnam, and expanded cooperation with Japan on critical minerals and energy.

The White House described the deal as a "massive victory" that safeguards U.S. economic strength and national security while prioritizing American workers, farmers, and families. The agreement is intended as a one-year truce, with both sides agreeing to continue negotiations on key issues, though it does not comprehensively resolve underlying geopolitical tensions such as those related to Taiwan and Russia’s war in Ukraine